The Path

By Betsy Cagle

I had never heard the phrase “The Path” until two years ago. When I heard it, I realized I’d been walking it for 40 years.

In the mid 1960’s I managed to convince my parents that I didn’t want to go to Sunday school every week. Since they very rarely went to church themselves, it was an easy sell. What they didn’t understand was why I no longer wanted to go.

My short time spent there showed me that even at such a tender age I knew hypocrisy when I saw it. I knew what I was learning about God did not seem to jive with my innermost being. So began my 40 plus year saga of being on The Path. I hadn’t the slightest clue that I had just taken a major detour off the super highway most everyone else was traveling – I just thought I was different.

My first tentative steps on The Path were to find a church I felt comfortable with by going with my friends. My first experience was Southern Baptist. I gave it a good try. When my friend’s mother wouldn’t let us listen to the radio because she thought The Rolling Stones song Satisfaction was “dirty,” I declined further invitations. I hadn’t gotten to the sex and drugs part yet, but I was certainly into the rock and roll!

So went the next five years: Episcopalian, Lutheran, Catholic, Church of Christ, Presbyterian, and many others – even Jewish. I went from religion to religion in an attempt to reconcile what I felt on the inside with what I was hearing from each denomination.

That experiment failed miserably. I decided to take a bold step into the unknown and find something not so mainstream. The closest I ever came was in the 1970’s when I found a non-denominational church. The term “church” is used loosely here as it was a service in a friend’s back yard and all of about 15 people attended with any regularity. It was still Christian based and though much of the dogma was loosened, there was still a lot of fire and brimstone.

My first brush with something other than Christianity or Judaism happened in – of all places – the airport. For a time in airports, I used to see the Hare Krishnas as they were called. Dressed in their bright ochre robes with shaved heads, except for a spot where a long ponytail trailed down to their neck, they would chant Hare Krishna and freely pass out flowers for money. My parents would force us to pass by them quickly, usually with some sort of derogatory comment from one parent or the other. However, they fascinated me. They were utterly foreign to me, but they always had a smile on their faces and seemed very kind, never demanding money and would give you the flower for free if money weren’t offered. To my parents they were a cult and that word was said with every ounce of negativity they could muster. I was well into my adulthood before I knew what Buddhism was. My brush with the Hare Krishnas turned out to be quite ironic. It was one of many clues I set for myself before my arrival in this lifetime so I could find my way on The Path.

With the failure of my church experience, I swore off organized religion altogether. To me God became a myth, created by the church in effort to put fear into their congregations for the ultimate purpose of cash flow. My spirit went dormant. But, deep inside there was a little voice constantly nagging me that God was real.

My saving grace was reading. It was my best friend everywhere I went. In high, school my favorite kinds of movies and books were science fiction. This genre first exposed me to other concepts about what God might be – my second clue that I was on The Path, though I was still totally unaware. Somehow I was guided to other books of a more esoteric nature and became conscious that here, in this time, in this world, maybe there was something very different to God as I knew Him.

Two years ago I was in a marriage that was coming apart at the seams. We agreed to attend a course to see if our marriage could be saved. As a result of that course (my third clue), I was forever changed. The spiritual became very real to me. I found a wonderful spiritual community of like-minded thinkers. My marriage didn’t make it, but I did.

My journey is not over. I’m still learning, still discovering the magnificence that is Spirit. Oblivious as I was, I now know an unseen hand is guiding me every step of the way.

How do you know you’re on The Path? Well, you’re reading this, aren’t you? It’s whatever you choose to discover, think, and experience on your way to understanding what God and spirituality mean to you.



Ms. Cagle began her career in the technology sector 16 years ago, and has been self employed since March 2002. Originally from Texas, she currently resides in Georgia and has been on “the path” for many years.