Every Piece Is Important

I’ve always been a spiritual person. Both my parents have a strong faith and raised me in the Southern Baptist Church. I believed in the importance of love in Jesus’ teachings as a child. In my teenage years, however, the church I grew up in didn’t resonate with me much anymore, and I came to resent its teachings.

When I first went to Unity North Atlanta (UNA), Georgia, in 2003 to listen to a friend sing, I was very confused because it was not like any church service I had ever been to—but I was also intrigued. In 2007 I returned and started attending UNA regularly, and I also began reading books by New Thought authors like Wayne Dyer, Ed.D., and Eckhart Tolle. I was hooked. I fell in love with Unity teachings and with the way UNA valued all paths to God. In 2013, I became a member.

Coming Home

At a Wednesday-night meditation three years later, I met the man who would become my husband. While he was a loving person, he was also an addict who would not seek help. To say our marriage was tumultuous would be an understatement.

I left UNA for a time in 2018 when my husband and I found a more traditional Christian church. Though I never entirely connected with that church, I continued to attend because I believed I was helping my husband’s sobriety. Everything eventually came to a head with us, though, and we separated the following spring.

So there I was—alone for the first time in three years and living in my parents’ basement with my two cats. The first Sunday following my separation from my husband, I went back to UNA. As soon as I stepped in the door and heard the congregation singing, “I am home, my family is here … and when I need my family, I am lifted up in prayer,” written by Debbie Schrodt, my eyes filled with tears.

Peace That Transcends the Body

Meanwhile, I started to experience symptoms of a rare genetic neurological condition called spinocerebellar ataxia (SCA), which affects balance and coordination. As the years progressed, my balance worsened. I now stumble constantly and bump into walls. I pretend not to be embarrassed by the odd looks and laughs I get from strangers or by their assumptions that I’m just drunk. I make jokes and laugh it off, but the truth is that I long for the days when walking required as little thought as breathing.

I have struggled with my disability. After reading how Myrtle Fillmore was able to find healing, I’ve often wondered why I haven’t been able to do so as well. But as my friend Rev. Julie Boniger once told me, “Healing doesn’t always mean a cure.” I have realized that healing for me means finding a peace within my soul that transcends the body.

The day I returned to UNA after my separation, Rev. Richard Burdick handed out jigsaw puzzle pieces to the congregation and explained how every piece was important. His talk helped me realize that every single piece of my life has been essential in making me the whole person I am today. Finding my spirituality in Unity has helped me appreciate my Southern Baptist upbringing, and Unity has taught me to value all the pieces that have affected me—my supporting and loving parents and my wonderful spiritual community and also my painful divorce and the disability I still struggle with.

Every Little Piece

They all brought me to where I am now, and I’m in the best place I have ever been. I’m in a spectacular, loving relationship; I have a wonderful family and a strong and supportive spiritual community; and I have the most amazing job I’ve ever had in my life.

Finding Unity has helped me to feel gratitude for every single moment and circumstance in my life—both the good and the bad—and it’s helped me discover that there is no good or bad. There is only God. And though it’s not always easy to see, Unity has taught me that God is in every little piece.

This article appeared in Unity Magazine®.