My "Friend" for Life

For as long as I can remember, I’ve sensed the presence of an Other. Yes, there have always been others for as long as I can remember, but these are not the Omnipresence I experience. That Dad was a seminarian at the time of my birth may well be just coincidence, but the Church which I grew up in provided a context, an explanation for what I was already sensing. As far as my Protestant orientation was concerned, the word for what I intuitively sensed a relationship with was “God”. Knowing which came first, the chicken or the egg, was in my instance already resolved. I already “knew” that there was a transcendent power; the Church simply provided me with a name for it. I’ve never shaken off that presence. There has never been any need to. It is as natural to me—and as necessary—as breathing. It is the ground from which my worldview is based. I’m spending a little time with this line of reasoning because it is becoming increasingly focused with age, unlike many things that are becoming vague and ambiguous. I have now spent sixty years in this relationship and I’m still wondering what it means about the purpose of my life, my existence. Religion unfortunately has not withstood the test of time as its parochial and concrete explanations fail to address what is the truest and surest part of my being. My retirement may yet consist of greeting at WalMart, but that lifelong presence continues to agitate in the direction of something more.