As the World Turns, so does my spiritual journey. The Guiding Light I've found here gives me more than One Life to Live. Yes, you guessed it: I've been living a soap opera...with all the elements -- secrets at birth, triple marriages, widowed, divorced, being the other woman, feeling suicidal, and ultimately becoming one of the happiest people I know.

Wanna start with the secrets at birth? I was born in an unwed mother's hospital with no name on the line for "father," on my birth certificate -- a secret that was kept from me for over 55 years!

So, first, my birth mother had me christened a Catholic, Religion #1.

About a year later and several states away, I was sprinkled a Methodist by my grandfather (my adopted mother's adopted father). Don't worry about following the details; it's only a soap opera. Grandpa Teeters was a Methodist minister, so naturally, he wanted to dedicate his granddaughter into his faith.

That's Religion #2.

And thirdly, since neither of my adoptive parents actually attended church as I was growing up, it was convenient for me to get to church with a cousin, a Baptist. So, when old enough to decide for myself, I got baptized.

Okay, Religion #3... so now that's three denominations awash in my soul. It was getting kinda crowded.

By the time I married, had three sons, and lost my 30-year-old husband to cancer, my faith had been tested, to say the least. Five years a widow, I fell in love with my professor at college…and he with me. Unfortunately, our timing was off. He had to get a divorce before we could be married…which we did as soon as the "D" papers were signed.

Ironically, in the meantime, it was his wife who introduced me to the Unitarian Universalist Church. Is that not an exceptional person!?! I actually think of her as a hero...honestly, I do. We are still friends to this day.

So, Religion #4: My UU journey has had two phases: Two Lives to Live, as it were. First, I came, I saw, I signed the book. After years of Strife and Struggle (now, I know there's no soap opera with that name, but there should be), I divorced my second husband, but we both still attended church here.

Then I remarried, to (uh-oh) a non-churchgoer.  With more loyalty to my marriage than my spirituality, I stayed away from the church for almost 18 years. During that time I tried to be the best person I could be, but I knew (while I wasn't that Young, I was Restless) and I could no longer deny my spirituality the support it needed. So, I am back … Yes, with Passions, I am back.

I did not tithe on my first time around. I didn't feel a need to tithe. Heck, I didn't feel a need to stay, let alone tithe money. But when the second bell rang, recess was over, and I knew what I wanted. I knew I needed this church in my life. And I knew this church could use me -- and, as fate would have it--my money,too-- to help others find the ultimate in happiness that I have found here. 

The more involved I became, the clearer the message: Works without money just won't cut it.  Sacrifice from both sides of this fence offered me the freedom from guilt that I harbored all those years away from the church.

Thus, I've found freedom as a UU: a freedom that has nothing to do with politics or government, or the country I live in. It's freedom from the fear of sin, from the guilt of sin…those sins that as a child I couldn't explain, yet at the same time, I couldn't escape.

The discipline that put that fear in me has been recycled into a joy of living, a joy of giving, and a joy of feeling loved. Yes, UUs can do that to you...they are not only Bold and Beautiful, they are amazing!