I was asked about my spirituality.
Here’s what I replied…..
there’s a lot on this in my fourth autobiographical installment:
Everyday Heaven
In this book I wrote about the deaths of several people close to me and write about how I dealt with these.
The other book I wrote which was deeply spiritual was Autism and Sensing; The Unlost Instinct.
I also wrote on my website www.donnawilliams.net under ‘about Donna’ in the ‘personal’ page
that I’m a Taoist and explained what that meant to me.
www.donnawilliams.net
there’s an article on Spiritual Atheism on my blog http://blog.donnawilliams.net
– How do you perceived God when you were adolescent and what have changed until now?
I was born into a non-religious family
At school we were taught Christianity but because of my struggles to understand language or sit in a seat, was mostly lost on me.
I began to understand by about age 10 that there was a ghost of a man, named Jesus, and that he was supposed to be God and if you prayed to him he’d help you.
I prayed as I lived with a psychopath who tortured and killed animals in front of me and psychologically and physically abused me almost daily.
God did not help me.
Finally I prayed to die.
Still God did not help.
By age 11, I gave up on God, progressively seeing it as a form of magical thinking used by desperate people which could be disempowering, distracting and futile.
I began to strive to become a balanced person, which was very very hard for a long time.
I find the striving of many organised religions to create imbalanced people can contribute to social divides of ‘deserving’ and non-deserving, sinners and saints, and I find this disturbing.
I found a profound peace in Taoism (a philosophy, not a religion) and found the strongest affinity with Buddhism more than any other religion, but see myself as a Spiritual atheist.
– What are the important experience that shaped your spirituality?
Watching psychopathy, horror, trauma, abuse, addiction, mental illness and the global equivalents.
Watching beauty in humble places most overlook.
Finding humanity in the most flawed of people.
A natural peace with balance.
An affinity to nature and sensory experience over intellect.
A flexible sense of identity, aspiration towards simplicity and arts.
– How do you see your life?
A creative one in which it is essential to have enough strength and humility to face up to imbalance and address it where possible.
Do you have specific goals for the future?
speaking to people through film as a screenwriter, through music as a composer, through arts as an artist
and maintaining social supports.
🙂 Donna *)
—
Donna Williams *)
Ever the arty Autie.
www.donnawilliams.net
www.auties.org