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For our interfaith dialogue discussion topic last night, the question was "How does your spirituality affect your life?"

That immediately begs the question, what is spirituality?  Is it the beliefs of our religions?  Is it the ritual/spiritual practice?  Is it simply that mystical feeling of connectedness with the divine?  Often times, I hear people use "spirituality" to refer to the stuff they like and "religion" to mean the stuff they don't like.  But even if we reject that simplistic dichotomy, which I do, it seems there is a real difference between "religion" and "spirituality."

How does your spirituality affect your life?

Today was Ching Ming, or Grave-Sweeping Day - the day one pays homage to one's ancestors by tending to their graves (hence the sweeping) and making offerings.   I am back in California this week for Ching Ming, to attend to the graves of my paternal grandparents.  Or rather, to watch my father attend so that I will know what to do when it someday falls to me.

It's early April and the California hills are still green as we drive the hour or so distance to Oakmont Memorial Park.  We pass hillsides littered with wildflowers, mainly California poppies.  Poppies are associated with sleep and death but these bright orange sunshiney blossoms seem like anything but.  I make a mental note that I want to plant some in my front yard.

My brother and I spent the afternoon running errands, some of which took us to Colma, which is a little ways south of San Francisco and what I call the city of the dead.  When land became too valuable on the peninsula, almost all of the graves were dug up and its residents transfered to Colma.  Coma is, I think, the only city in the country where the dead outnumber the living.

As we drove along El Camino Real, we saw a Jewish cemetery, and an Italian cemetery, and a Chinese cemetery... 

Ching Ming was yesterday but since most adults work, not everyone has the luxury to be able to visit graves on the day proper.  Thus a large sign at the Chinese cemetery proclaimed that the "Ching Ming festival" would take place this weekend, today and tomorrow.

We drove on in the sunshine, reflected by the golden California poppies clustered on the side of the road.