Welcome to October!

This past Sunday we honored the service and dedication of so many people that bring life to the idea of the Institute for Spiritual Development and make it the reality of our beloved spiritual home. 

For a long time, I didn't think I was raised with a value of "community service" in the purest sense. My parents weren't the kind of folks who volunteered often at their church or within our community. My own sense of volunteerism only kicked in when I was a young adult in the late 1980's as I realized as a gay man that I wanted to do my part to help my newly discovered community, which was being decimated by HIV/AIDS. So I engaged with a couple of local organizations, went to some intense volunteer training sessions, went to volunteer meetings, and began to fit volunteerism in my life. I would lament about how my parents did not instill this value of service in me.

Or did they? You see, growing up I was a member of an Eastern European music and dance performing troop, which was part of a nationwide network of such groups, which ultimately groomed me to receive a college scholarship to sing and dance with the grandfather of all Eastern European performing groups, the Duquesne University Tamburitzans. The performing groups operated (and continue to operate) through the financial and human resources of the parents and families of the kids who are members. Just like countless other extracurricular athletic, musical or cultural activities in our childhood, it was the parents who were the backbone of all that these groups accomplished. I began to remember the weekends where my mom would bake hundreds of pumpkin rolls to sell at bake sales, or my dad hitting up his friends over and over to buy raffle tickets, or both of them working in the kitchen and behind the bar of the countless picnics and socials that helped to support the group, and that helped to cultivate me. I suddenly realized that this was where they chose to offer their time and talents...to support what was making me happy and helping to support my interests. And the network of these groups are indeed a thriving community of people committed and dedicated to keeping their cultural heritage alive. So my parents, in fact, shared thousands of volunteer hours in service to their family, and their cultural community.

This is how I now see us at ISD. As a family...as a community with a heritage that must be and is being preserved by those who partake of it. When we participate in ISD, we are keeping our Spiritual Home thriving, which, in turn, is helping our personal spiritual lives to thrive. It is a symbiotic, synergistic exchange that I have been happy to be involved with since first arriving at ISD nearly 10 years ago. 

During the homily this past Sunday, I invited all present to really assess how they might expand their sharing of talents and time to help ISD continue to thrive, and I invite all of our ISDetails readers to do the same. We are here for you and have countless teams that can use more help. 

And one of the most basic ways you can help ISD to thrive is to attend our services, classes and events! We have lots going on through the end of October and are finalizing our year-end schedule as well. Won't you join us at one, or several of our events and activities? Here are just a few of our upcoming activities, with more being added for November and December. 

Needing some inspiration or a recorded guided meditation to help you attune to Spirit? Check out ISD's Soundcloud page for a comprehensive list of past Sunday Service homilies, Sunday Wellness meditations and Evening Meditations.  Align with the Divine!

Rev. Rob Banaszak

Pastor, Institute for Spiritual Development, Washington, D.C.