Why spirituality, relationships and the environment (SRE)?

We love God, infinite Love, Spirit, or whatever you would like to call the Divine. We also respect that there are probably as many ways to honor God and express spiritual qualities such as unselfish love, joy, peace, honesty, strength, wisdom, justice, mercy, and so on, as there are individuals in the world. 

Spirituality sometimes begins as a purely internal and solitary endeavor. However, spirituality also gains depth, breadth, and strength as it engages with others. So, it's no wonder that the aspiration to love others in the same way that we love ourselves appears in so many faith traditions. Many people, including us, believe that this spiritual practice is the basis for solid relationships.

Relationship building takes thoughtfulness and effort, and it's worth it. However, many people and organizations today are so busy that the essential activity of connecting authentically with others has been diminished. We hope to assist in the restoration and creation of precious opportunities for community.

Who is the other and how might we be in a positive relationship with them? Sometimes the first answer to this question involves one or more people. However, subsequent answers must expand in scope when confronted with the realization that we have an inextricable relationship with every living thing--great and small--in the world. Our environment and all of the mutually-beneficial relationships within it have been bestowed on us by our one shared and loving Parent.

Many have experienced how caring for others brings us full circle. In the process of nurturing our neighbors, our environment, and our relationships with them, our understanding of God deepens, our spirituality is fed, we feel more hope and purpose, and our neighbors and the environment end up nurturing us in return. Cherishing the goodness and beauty in everyone's nature causes our hearts to breathe the sacred conviction, "there is a God!"

Thus, simultaneously engaging with spirituality, relationships, and the environment is actually inevitable and a powerful proposition.