When I'm Asked,
"Do You Believe in God?"
I Think That's the Wrong Question
Since childhood I've felt something watching over me
And it gave me comfort.
I never asked my Self who or why?
I never told anyone.
Why should I?
It felt like a part of me.
As I aged, what did it ever tell me? What did it mean?
I never bothered to ask.
It was just me talking to myself.
In my adult years, when people asked,
"Do you believe in God?"
I found myself saying, "Yes".
To say "No" would only invite more questions
So "Yes" felt right. It gave me peace.
It also gave me a feeling of purpose, order, and resolve.
And left me feeling good and right. A better person.
Go figure.
The better question, of course,
And the more accurate and telling question, would have been:
"Do you sometimes feel that you're never alone?”
Lawrence H. Climo is a Vietnam Vet, board-certified psychiatrist, and a writer. He has practiced psychotherapy and psychopharmacology in inpatient and outpatient settings, been a teacher, administrator, forensic consultant as well as writer. His articles have appeared in professional, academic, and popular journals and magazines and he is the author of books, The Patient Was Vietcong: An American Doctor in the Vietnamese Health Service, 1966-1967; Psychiatrist on the Road: Encounters in Healing and Healthcare; Caregiving: Lives Derailed (under the pseudonym Eli Cannon), and From Toxic Civil Discourse to Saving a World: A Midrash-Guided Memoir of a Vietnam Vet.
Very powerful.
ReplyDelete