Giving Blood As a Spiritual Experience

I gave blood on Friday.

It was a spiritual experience.

Each year my wife's company sponsors a blood drive at their corporate office. The American Red Cross comes and sets up shop.

This is the second time I have volunteered (ok...my wife volunteered me!) to give.

As I was walking from the parking lot to the building, I had what I can only call a "spiritual" experience. It was so intense that I had to stop for a moment and reflect on what was taking place in my spirit.

I felt connected.

Connected to something greater than myself.

It was more than just satisfaction or happiness at what I was about to do. It was a feeling, an impression, an opening to something deep within the recesses of my spirit.

I felt at one with the Universe.

Since Friday I have reflected on the meaning of this experience.

All I was doing was volunteering to give of myself in hopes that it will help someone else in a time of need.

You should know...I HATE needles! Me and sharp object being stuck into my body do not often see eye to eye.

Yup...I am a 6'4", 240 pound CHICKEN!

But somehow I know that giving blood is almost an elemental need within the human experience. None of us can function without this "life-giving" resource.


Thoughts On Spirituality
"Spirituality" has so often been defined as something that we engage in or participate in. It is something we "do"

Spirituality has also been defined as humankind's attempt to understand and give voice to a relationship with something outside of itself. While we know that our spirit is "within" us, we often talk of spiritual things as something from without.

we define our spirituality by who we "are."

We say:

* My spirituality comes from the Christian tradition


* I believe in God


* I am a Buddhist


* I grew up a Southern Baptist


* I am Muslim


* I am an Atheist


We define ourselves by what we believe.

More often than not, we go further and define our spirituality by an affiliation with a group or organization

On Friday, as I walked up to the building, I was not a former Baptist, or Buddhist or practicing Catholic. As I stood there in the middle of a parking lot ready to give of myself - I was swallowed up by something so deep within me that I could not find voice for the experience of it.

My religion did not define me. My notions of what I believe ceased for a short moment and I was taken to a place of utter and full transcendence.

The immanence of the moment was overtaken by the transcendence of the spiritual act that I was about to perform.

My spirituality is not defined by who I am, what I believe or what organization to which I belong.

For me, spirituality is something I do.

It is a million points of light given for the betterment of those outside of myself.

Spirituality is not static...it is active...not a noun...but a verb.

GO and DO.

GIVE and SACRIFICE

HELP

TOUCH

LOVE

Your Spiritual Friend,
Frank


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xoxoxox
FD