What do you miss about religion?

[NRaleighLiberal]

15. A well played organ making the church thunder with amazing sounds...

A skilled choir singing so beautifully it would bring tears

Both of these are regularly experienced by attending Duke Chapel - it is total immersion in aural beauty.

I also miss singing some of the really complex hymns (Ralph Vaughn-Williams wrote the Episcopal hymnal - he really did hit home runs on some of them!).

In a way, when one is raised "in the church" (as in "you have to go to church with us" type parents) from as early as one can remember, the memories embed themselves deeply. Lots of it is tied up in who one is with - sitting in pews snuggled up between my parents or grandparents, for example.

But - I've replaced it all quite easily - attending concerts, listening to music, and realizing that lots of what we experience when young becomes habit - and with free will and an open mind, they can be broken.

I like to tell people we now worship at the church of nature - spending Sunday mornings having a nice breakfast, listening to music, kayaking, hiking, birdwatching - just marveling at the beauty of the world we live in.