Ultimately, Buddhism brought me back to The Church, after a long hard, spiritual journey. I’ve always wondered if I can’t be a wife and a mother, how do I fit into the Mormon family oriented system? I didn’t know how to put it all in my head at once. I’ve always needed organization—make things neat and tidy so I can understand them. Because of that, I thought this whole time that I could either be Mormon, or be gay, but not both. It took studying Buddhism to understand that our true state is to be a whole person: I can be both.
You can’t convert to Buddhism, you can incorporate it; but whatever your spiritual roots are, those are your roots. If you want to become a strong tree, you have to sink into your roots. I had left mine for years. I was living in New York City dealing with the loss of a decade long relationship and my mother’s death. Buddhism was helping me sit with this pain. After reading this passage, that’s when I knew I was going back to my Mormon roots.
Full Story to Come
To see Tina’s work visit saxophonetina.org and tinaricherson.com