"If there were no God, it would have been necessary to invent him." - Voltaire

I've always had an on-off relationship with God.

OK when I say God, I don't mean a particular god like ... say maybe Jesus Christ or Buddha or Muhammad or Vishnu ... but like an all encompassing transcendent Divine Being overseeing everyone and everything that goes on in the universe and beyond.

I guess if you want to be pedantic about it, then agnostic theism would probably come to mind.

Bit of perspective here :

I went to a Catholic, a secular then a Methodist school. Mum goes to the temple to pray to Kuan Yin, the Goddess of Mercy every week while Dad is a bit of an agnostic as well. The rest of the people in our extended family on both sides are a motley mix of Christians, Buddhists, agnostics and couldn't-give-a-fucks. So I kinda grew up being friendly with Mary and flirting a tad with JC but never really committing anything beyond sporadic visits to a church or three.

In the last year or two though, I've been doing a bit of reading and thinking. And a book I really like is The Art of Happiness, a fascinating collaboration between the Dalai Lama and Howard C. Cutler. Buddhism seems to agree with my metaphysical palate more than the rest, if only because it's not so much a religion but more a way of life and thought. It also appears to advocate peace and harmony, to live and let live and basically just be a good person with compassion and kindness. It seeks to unite more than to divide and to find common ground more so than differences. Somehow too, it also gave me a sense of Zen when before, it had always eluded me.

All my life I'd been surrounded by so many Christians that expressing a preference for a different religion seemed almost treason, so I was gratified when two of my favourite people J and D were of a similar mindset.

Anyway J and I got to talking and in a nutshell, I was persuaded to offer a prayer and obtain a divination lot at the Kuan Yin temple for peace of mind. Now, I had done this divination lot thing before at Wong Tai Sin in Hong Kong, so imagine my boo boo moment when I realised I had been doing it wrong. Anyhow, I got one on Thursday and it was a 上千, i.e. a good lot. So yeah although some might say it's a bit silly to pin one's hopes on something as random as a stick falling out of an urn coupled with the probability of the runes falling on opposite sides, I guess one could say I was praying for peace of mind. :)