From “What Makes You Come Alive: A Spiritual Walk with Howard Thurman” by Lerita Coleman Brown
My interest in spirituality had begun many years ago, during college. Over the years, I read Catholic mystics like St. Theresa of Avila and St. John of the Cross; dabbled in Thomas Merton; studied Quaker mystics George Fox, Thomas Kelly, and John Woolman and Sufi mystics Rabia, Rumi, and Hafiz; and enjoyed the work of Henri Houwen. Having perused the writings of dozens of spiritual teachers, I remained especially curious about “ordinary mystics,” as Marsha Sinetar refers to them. Ordinary mystics are regular people who sense the presence of God, hear a guiding voice,or have a transcendent experience of oneness. Mysticism, writes Father Albert Haase, means “living with a sensitivity to the divine presence and responding to God’s ardent longing and enthusiastic invitation to a deeper relationship at this very moment: in a burning bush as happened to Moses, in the tiny whisper of a sound as Elijah experienced, in the call out of hiding like Zacchaeus.” In whatever manner an experience of God occurs, a radical inner transformation frequently accompanies it. This shift may include becoming less self-centered and more focused on God, other people, and the larger world.
Sometimes I wondered whether I might be an ordinary mystic – and perhaps you do too.