When I was in high school, some of my friends and I talked about those usual teenage existential topics such as death, religions, love, sex, etc. I decided I wanted to open my own church or maybe a temple. We devised a plan, my friends and I. We would somehow let people know a new prophet was coming. I , of course, took the lead on being the prophet. I always thought I had a connection with the world beyond, call it a spirit world or divinity. I still feel that connection, though I am more humble as to whether this connection is helpful to myself and others.

I remember making copies of a sheet proclaiming “The Prophet is coming”. Yup, that’s all it said. My friends and I left some in the school bathrooms and here or there where they would not be immediately discarded by janitorial staff,

I don’t know if anyone read my broadside but It was fun to think so.

But I never got a church out of it.

These days I might say, “There is a prophet in each of our souls, sounding alarms and pointing vigorously to show us the turn to take. This prophet is always smiling, sometimes laughing, and sometimes shaking their head. They do not deal in absolutes and ultimatums. The like to dance”.

Or so it seems to me.