Okay, now that I'm home and not at work, I reread both your post and mine. I think I might have missed the mark a bit in my long winded response that amounted to almost nothing. Geez, could I be manic? Ya think???????

Okay, bare with me here. After thinking about this on the drive home I got to thinking about this, when I look at myself and my past and my now, I see that in my spiritual realm, most of my life I spent being very open minded, searched down many paths, some even outlandish I might add, I asked a lot of the deep questions...why am I here? What is the purpose of my life? Who or what is God? Where do I fit in the grand scheme of things? I sought out many different practices...I'm debating here whether to mention any of them...ultimately that doesn't matter, so I won't, I don't want to risk offending anyone.
Well, my search was at many times fruitless, other times I caught glimpses of answers to those questions. Now, I know beyond a shadow of a doubt the answers to those questions, for me! And I feel a great completeness in that, a fulfillment if you will, probably the closest thing I've ever had to "coming home". But I will say that I don't know that I would have this current spiritual strength had I not explored all of those other paths and suspended my disbelief long enough to find out it wasn't the answer for me. But had I not I would have been left "wondering" about those other belief systems.
I hope I'm on point here sqrl.

Okay, next point, I feel pretty confident in saying that age plays a roll in this, at both ends of the spectrum. A child is untainted, totally free to believe whatever comes their way, a clean slate that as time goes on becomes written on by experience, thought and imagination. Children are eager to believe in the magical. Why? Because they don't know NOT to. If their strong enough, they can keep that belief alive, but many succomb to societies rules that such beliefs are silly. They become pigeon-holed. At the other end of the spectrum the elderly at they become closer and closer to their death ask the really big questions. What have I done with my life? What did I accomplish? Did I love my children enough? Where will I go when I die? and perhaps they get a serious case of the regrets and begin with the "if only"'s. But that is their imagination working in reverse, right? Looking back on the pivotal moments and decisions that shaped who they became and seeing them for what the really were, unfortunately, many times, a bunch of BS. How sad. BUT, their not dead yet and have an opportunity to open their minds once again.
Again, I hope I'm on point here sqrl.

Well, I'm gonna leave it at that for now. I'm all out of epiphanies for the moment. Well....
LOL.
TgrsPurr.