We just cannot do it all alone. Unless you are the rare hermit who can sit in a cave and achieve enlightenment all by yourself, we all turn to others to help us get our weary souls through a dark night.

One of the places we can turn is to the blogosphere. I read several blogs irregularly, that inspire me greatly. They are the "turn to" blogs on my personal list that I seek out when I need a jolt of spiritual adrenalin.  I thought I would share some of them with you, and would also ask you whose blogs you go to for inspiration of the spiritual kind? When you need a lift, or when your soul needs turning in the right direction, whose blogs do you seek?

The Reverend Elizabeth Kaeton is an Episcopalian priest in NJ. She is also a lesbian grandmother in a long term committed relationship in a denomination torn asunder about what it sees as the "issue" of homosexuality. Throughout the past  couple of years of raging controversy, she has been solid and true and kind and honest. Her blog shares herfeelings and her faith. I led with her because today marks the 34th anniversary of the renegade ordination of eleven women in the Episcopal church. her blog tells the tale beautifully.  Even as she writes this week, a meeting (referred to as "Lambeth") is taking place in England  which may determine the future direction or schism of the Anglican Communion, as the conservative bishops protest the election and installation of an openly gay bishop in New Hampshire. She is attending Lambeth. Here is a view of her faith in action:

If we do not come to the work of the injustices we personally experience without an understanding of the interlocking nature of oppression, our work not only lacks credibility, it also lacks integrity with the gospel of Jesus Christ.

If our work for justice for ourselves is not also deeply rooted and grounded in justice for all, it begins to reflect the situation described by Civil Rights leader Fannie Lou Hamer who cautioned that our work needs to be for ‘justice’ and not ‘just-us.’

Jayne, at Journey Through Grace is the mother of Sam, an autistic teenager. She blogs about her faith, birds and her family - especially Sam. Jayne always manages to find a blessing in her life, even when it as it the end of a struggle. She struggles with so much, but does it all with such spirit-infused love:

We now have an appointment. I searched and searched to find someone who could see Sam before September. Someone who might have an understanding of autism. Someone I would not have to educate. Someone whose brain I could pick to figure out what we need to do. We'll see the hopefully kind and knowledgeable Dr. B next Wednesday at 3PM. He's newer. He apparently just finished a fellowship at YYY last year. That's good. YYY has a great Autism Center. Maybe, just maybe, that means he actually knows something about autism. We need knowledge. We need experience with autism and medications. Apparently our good friend Lexapro is no match for puberty at this point in Sam's life.

The Velveteen Rabbi is in Israel for seven weeks this summer, and her blog entries about meeting with Israeli and Palestinian groups are amazing. Here is an excerpt from her recent entries:

I know some American Jews who come here and experience nothing but pleasure. For them, Israel feels like Jewish paradise: a place that functions according to Jewish rhythms, where Shabbat is truly a sabbath, where our holy language of prayer is a living spoken tongue, where great Jewish things are happening all the time everywhere you turn.

And I know some American Jews who come here and experience nothing but sorrow. Engaging with the matzav (The Situation) can be a perennial source of heartbreak. Spend time in the Territories, meet Palestinians, read stories like Bassam's, and it's easy to descend into a despair so bleak and all-encompassing that hope seems all but impossible.

In some ways, there's something easy about each of those extremes. Blocking out the bad and focusing only on the good, or blocking out the good and focusing only on the bad: either way one gets the luxury of absolute certainty about what Israel is and what it represents. And either of those attitudes toward Israel can calcify, can become a constraint that holds one in a particular political and emotional position...

The cognitive dissonance is exhausting. But I would feel dishonest if I were to eschew the dissonance and focus on either the all-good or the all-bad. Amazing and painful, beautiful and appalling...this place is always both/and. As I cross the midpoint of my Israel summer adventure, that's some of the deepest learning I'm receiving.

On Chanting is a wonderful blog written by a woman who chants Torah at her synagogue. Her mystical apprehension can be intoxicating as she allows herself to truly feel the presence of G-d in her life.

I remember when I first got involved in my synagogue, and that feeling of coming home—of gathering with a crowd each week, seeing familiar faces, sharing intimacy simply by being present. It woke me up; it was new, but also comfortable in the same way as hanging out with friends or family, having no agenda aside from enjoying each other's company. Although my life was not bereft of those experiences, they were diminishing in favor of online communication. But not until I began to re-experience the other kind of interaction on a regular basis did I understand, deep down in my bones, how much I missed and needed it. It was a feeling beyond my conscious control, surely hard-wired and in my DNA. Maybe this is why we invented religious ritual way back when, to insure that we had a reason to gather in person on a regular basis. Maybe religion had nothing to do with God—or maybe that feeling is God, and why we're compelled to sit close, shake hands, breathe the same air.

These are such thoughtful women, each different in almost every way one from the other. I am so thankful for them and for the others I read in such times.

I'd like to know about more places that are your "go to" blogs when your soul is thirsty. What spiritual/religious/inspirationl women bloggers grab your spirit's attention?

Living an active spiritual life requires refueling -- some of that is from sacred writings, some from prayer and meditation, and some from the communities in which we find ourselves. One of the new communities is the blogging world. Here, in this land of mostly silence, we can meet and/or be met when we are not even around.

We are known here by our footprints, the traces of our thoughts left behind in print, the remnants of our journeying.

The yearnings of our spirits are seen in post after post where the invisible becomes obvious as we struggle forward, or glide forward, or swim or sink, or fly.

So....whose echo speaks to your soul in this universe of blogs?

Mata H, CE for Religion and Spirituality, is blogging her soul out at Time's Fool