Kate Solusar’s Holocron

I’m married, mom to two boys, 8 and 6 years old.  My youngest son has autism, which makes life very interesting, sometimes challenging, sometimes difficult, and sometimes wonderful.  He has taught me so many things since his birth.  His older brother is wonderful too, with his own interesting view of the world.  They have taught my spouse and I so much about perception and perspective as they navigate the world around them and try to make sense of it.  One of the greatest gifts they have given me is to be truly present in the here and now, to practice mindfulness.  It’s not always easy, but it is very worthwhile.

My current spirituality has been under construction for the last two years or so, although it began in 2001, with my father’s untimely death, 9/11, the birth of my youngest son with medical complications that persist to this day, and the sex abuse scandals in the Catholic Church.  My foundations were shifted off their moorings and I withdrew from active religious practice until last year.  My study and personal quest began with a shift from the Catholic perspective to more Earth-based spiritual practices, practices aligned with both my Native American and Celtic background, until last year, when a significant article I stumbled upon at the site Beliefnet shifted my perspective even more.  A Muslim author wrote an article about the congruence between his faith and the Jedi of Star Wars.  Since 9/11, I grew angry with my faith, God as I understood God to be, and two of the three great monotheistic traditions Christianity and Islam, and wanted no part of any faith or God that would allow events like this to be perpetrated in God’s name.  So this article finally broke through some of that anger and caused me to think about freeing myself from the negativity that I had held onto since 2001.  Again my eldest son, with his great interest in the Star Wars saga and with all of the questions raised by the movies, spurred my initial contact with the article as I tried to gather as much background related to the movies and particularly the Jedi as I could.  This led to my initial contact with the Jedi Realism movement, and to the incorporation of the study, training, discipline of that worldview into my own.  I am active in a number of Force-related on-line communities as a result, with some interesting findings.  Within the autism community, a number of people publically spoke or wrote of a link between Jedi philosophy and practice and their ability to cope with autism, either as a person with autism or as parent of one.  I was no longer alone, others had similar experiences and even better, were willing to share them.

Over time, as I am able, I would like to share more about what I have learned in my study and practice of the Jedi way and how I have integrated all the various aspects of my background into something that works for me and makes a difference not only to me personally but to the others I encounter every day.

 This post was originally posted at the beliefnet website in my journal there.  I adapted it for presentation here and thought it was a good way to introduce myself and this holocron.