Alright, I have officially had it!  The seed was planted when I conveyed my non-smoking stance to a spiritually-oriented colleague and I received a horrified recitation on how I was being judgmental and how American Indians and various other cultures used tobacco in their spiritual rituals.  It progressed to witnessing a train wreck of a meeting at a church I presently attend where no one was protesting the abusive speech of a church elder. The last straw was when another spiritually-oriented colleague began backing up a truckload of her personal shit to deposit at my doorstep, and was surprised that I was not accepting this “delivery” with open arms.  ENOUGH IS ENOUGH.  Whatever you define as “spiritual” it seems to becoming a wide umbrella under which to hide a multitude of questionable things- among them being the right to take a stand.   Oh yes, one may feel moved to spread love and light when warranted or appropriate, but I refuse to equate the absence of dogma as grounds to accept and all behavior lest we fear being viewed as ”unspiritual.”  The conversation I was having about substances did not mean to impugn the illustrious legacy of our Indian brothers and sisters but to state my personal preference against anything being smoked in my own home (other than incense).  I would hope that I could draw the line when my own home is involved! Why? Because we have every right to live our truth in our own lives.  Same with the meeting I was itching to leave- others may have seen it as spiritual to have the church member in question rant and rave and hope the energy of the sanctuary (and the meeting itself) was not too adversely affected, but since I was affected, I brought my concerns to the attention of the Minister.  We have to love ourselves enough to take a stand.  And lastly, my embrace of my friend’s “delivery would have had her continuing to marinate in her own pain.  Far from being a loving gesture, I would not be in the position to lift her up (or anyone else for that matter) or to encourage her to work through her concerns if I jumped into the cesspool of her drama under the guise that it was the “spiritual” thing to do.  We have to make choices about how we expend our energies. Sanaya Roman defines spiritual growth as “growing through connecting with your Higher Self and to a Higher Power.”  This does not sound like a passive process, nor does it sound like permission to let the world run all over us to fulfill some misguided perception of how spirituality should play itself out in modern day life.  We all have every right to set boundaries, to clear the air (figuratively or figuratively) and address matters that are within our control to move forward on our paths to realize our best selves.  It is about staying in our power and making choices from self-knowledge and love. I do not take too kindly to smoke being blown in my eyes and you should not either.