Well, New Year’s Eve has come and gone and January rouses me into wintertime musings about life--past and present–as I begin to clarify my still-nebulous resolutions for the year ahead.

As imbibing in the spirits helped many of us ring in 2015, another kind of spirit comes into focus for me–a more important one–my spirit. Better said, my spirituality. It’s what gives me guidance and gets me through.

Spirituality: “the core part of us that gives us the power to transcend any experience at hand and seek meaning and purpose, to have faith, to love, to forgive, to pray, to meditate, to worship and see beyond the physical here and now. Spirituality is the inner force that animates human life.”

As we grow older, it seems that we have more life losses to grieve and be sad about. We are losing physical prowess, friends, lovers, family members and familiar things, like paper books, hand-written letters in the mail, even fun stuff like funny comic books, drive-in restaurants and movies.

But may we console ourselves with the simple, but profound truth that grief and happiness can gracefully exist side-by-side in our hearts.

I believe that as we grieve the very gradual loss of our physical abilities, we can increase the power of our spirits in new and exciting ways.

Personally cultivating our spirituality can not only have a positive and powerful effect on our own strength and energy, but also on the health and well-being of many people around us.

Here are a couple of personal reflections I’ve had along my spiritual way. Do either of them ring true for you?

Personal Reflection Number One…

So many of us were told as youngsters that we had to depend on our brain to get us through life with an unusual body that was partially paralyzed. “Be smart, clever and well-educated and you will show people you can fit in.” 

But there was another important piece. Body and mind are interlaced with our spirit to make us complete. Some even say that we are all spirits on earth who just happen to have a body. And that spiritual transcendence can help us face our physical differences and challenges “with a clearer perspective, rising above the limits and pain initially imposed by the disability.”

As a person who has been living with a post-polio disability for sixty-two years now, my spirituality has helped me make sense of being unusual, physically. God works in unexpected ways, at surprising times and through unique people like you and me.

Personal Reflection Number Two…

We have the power to effortlessly transfuse other souls on earth with enthusiasm and assurance. I really believe that we who have a socially- obvious disability with braces, crutches, wheelchairs, and a variety of physical differences have been put on a stage in this “theater of life.”

Like it or not, people notice us. People look at us. People even stare at us. And that has given us an automatic power to influence others in positive ways.

Being a person with a disability who genuinely emanates spiritual peace can have an amazing effect on so many people around us. How many times have you heard people say “you are such an inspiration to me?” Spiritual meditation can bring us a peaceful heart. That serenity in our eyes and in our overall countenance, surrounded by our appliances and asymmetries, automatically gives hope to those who are seeking inspiration.

Did you see the woman on Dancing with the Stars last year who came in second dancing on two prostheses? The power of her positive influence in America and around the world is huge. She has no idea.

And neither do we. We can and have been influencing the human condition on earth as we have transcended and transformed our polio-caused disability from weakness into strength.

When you think of it, there is great irony in knowing that because we have lost muscle power, we have the potential to give muscle, vitality and strength to the world and we don’t even have to say a word.

First and foremost, we simply have to be present among our fellow human beings. That’s it. Just show up. Just be there, among people. All the rest that we choose to do–like speaking, writing, listening, leading, following, praying for people, contributing through our work or our family jobs or a hundred other roles we may play—all of that is simply what we do. But what about the spirit driving all that activity? How does the divinity of our inner spirit inform our activity?

As I write this blog post, my first 2015 resolution is slowly emerging into crystal clarity.  I want to tap into my spirituality every single day this year…because I really, really, really respect and like my spirit. I will ask spirit every morning to lead me through the activities of that new day.

Okay spirit, I’m ready. What will happen? This is exciting.

Wishing you an enthusiastic year ahead.……….

Did any of these personal reflections on spirituality resonate with you?

Sharing your unique personal insights here might help enlighten someone who is earnestly searching for his or her own spiritual answers…