Religion and spirituality

When asked, I used to say "i'm spiritual, not religous." Not that I really knew what I was saying, but I think I recognized at an early age that aspects of different religions appealed to me. I had very good friends who were Lutheran and it seemed to me they were happier at church. For me it was all fire and brimstone (and sometimes Latin) until I found the 10:15 folk mass with guitars and singing. But even then it seemed like a hook to get the kids in and not really a change to the fundamental principles of the religion: do a bad thing and go you know where or you can't take the host if you haven't had confession. Those things seemed to be pushing me away, not closer to my God. These days I take a bit from here and a bit from there, keeping true to some fundamental principles like being a good and true, honest and loving person.