Spiritual paths

This is a good way to explain where I am now (in a spiritual sense): at the intersection between two traditions. In my never ending spiritual quest, I've met few people, read some books, had interesting conversations that brought me to this crossroad. The following is part I of the trip (it's a bit long... but it's worth it if one wants to know me better, plus it's even funny).

I was raised Catholic but soon lost interest in religion. When I moved to Canada in 2004 I happened to live with a free methodist pastor and his family. It was not a "choice", I was looking for an accomodation and the person I worked with suggested me to live with his friends without mentioning that they were all deeply involved with religion (and were quite young which struck me). They ended up being wonderful people and I loved living in a sort of religious community. They didn't ask me to go the church where he preached but I did go and it was ... a shock. The service went on for more than hour and half, the "church" didn't look like a church but it was an  "area" where people gathered, sang, read out loud passages of the bible. Don't take me wrong, there were rules to follow but -in comparison the Italian (=Catholic) way of approaching religion- it seemed a kind of strange and even awkard. First, the church was filled with young people and children, second the atmosphere was filled with joy and celebration. Forget the original sin and sense of guilt that is inherent to Catholic moral teachings: those people were happy, spirtual, friendly and even fun! I was deeply moved by this experience and went to the church every Sunday.

However, I felt far from being as religious as the claimed to be. Sometimes I was overwhelmed, especially by a housemate who believed herself to be the reincarnation of the Virgin Mary, I will never forget when her family came to visit her. We hugged while praying the in middle of the living room, at some point I even thought that I was being punk'd... but Ashton Kutcher didn't show up so I just thought that I was surrounded by crazy warriors of God. The first thing her dad asked me was: are you Christian? [WFT??!!] And then he said: let's pray together like he was saying -I don't know- let's have a coffee which would have made much more sense to me!

There were modern warriors/extremists who made me think and left me speachless but when I came back to Italy I felt more "attracted" to religion. As I didn't like going to the church here, I almost lost interest again but became interested in Buddhism and read several books about it. I didn't fully embrace buddhism as I  had a reluctance for reasons that I cannot explain. Buddhist philosophy is so different from my culture that I found it difficult to understand and practice.

I was far from any religious beliefs when I met K. on a business trip. We met in Split and one evening he told his touching story. K, a young and handsome man who looks healthy and strong, got cancer few years ago and went through many tough experiences. When he was in hospital he started reading the Bible and his life changed: he re-married his wife in a Catholic church, adoped three kids and had lived ever since following the Christian path.The day after, he brought me a small book: "it's good for prayers and meditation". It was good indeed and I read it on the plane.

To be continued...