This Sunday, after a year long hiatus, I decided to attend the Unitarian Church service. I was on a roll this morning and ready for a little nourishment for the soul. In fact, I was inspired to go, believing that for some reason there was a perfect message for me to receive this morning.
Today I’d be learning about “Synergy”. Oh yes, this was going to be good…
I was blown away, I rifled through my purse searching for a pen and began frantically note taking all over the front of the morning program guide, my handwriting nearly illegible. I first learned that, “The soul exists and is built entirely out of attentiveness.”
The Reverend, Kevin McChesney, shared the story of a young girl who was born developmentally stunted. She didn’t speak until she was 3 years old and didn’t show any signs of much cognitive function. Doctors told her parents she would be challenged by all sorts of disabilities. She recalled her Grandfather, the only one who believed she was more capable than most would give her credit for, saying, “My soul wasn’t ready to be here. They thought that because I was born so early. My soul just wasn’t ready. For the first few years it was searching for something to hold onto.”
“Did he just shed light into my own life?” I wondered. My life was beginning to make more sense. I, too, was born “early” two months premature to be exact and with a rough entrance into this wild and wonderful world, it took me a few very long months to buy in. During that time, I refused to look at my parents and my health wavered unfavorably. Then one afternoon my Mom leaned over my crib and whispered an offer that my little baby self couldn’t refuse: “If you stick around, I’ll take care of you and do anything to help you for the rest of my life.” It was then, in that exact moment that I took my fixed gaze from the corners of the room (the place where I later explained at age 4, the “angels were”) and looked directly at her. “Yes, I promise” my eyes said in return.
My mannerisms and personality changed immediately. I was in this, I knew I had everlasting support, and no matter what may come or the medical complications, surgeries, and frustrations I would face, I had committed. From that day on and in every childhood picture aside from my first birthday when I was sick with a cold, my smile literally astounds me to look at. It lights up the picture. I’ve never seen a kid so happy. It is the smile of a child with a purpose, a mission, one who knows why she’s here.
Luckily, I too, had someone to breathe me to life. It was true, what I heard in the back of the pews, what I wrote down… The Soul does exist and is completely built out of attentiveness. My soul needed tending, nurturing, minding, developing, and healing.
May we all have someone who will step in to tend to our souls when we need it most.
The Reverend went on…
“We need to sustain ourselves for the journey. That is the work of the soul. By doing and giving to what is most important, this is the work of the soul. This is the work of our lifetimes. The soul is what asks us to live with a poetic sensibility. We want to take time to remember who we are and where it is we are going.”
I was beginning to weave it all together. This Spirit and Soul stuff. These words go hand in hand, but how are they different. We transpose these words so often, yet they are separate in their meanings.
Our lives are quite literally dancing lullabies. We move in and out of motion, expressing our Spirit and getting know the Soul of who we are. The more we seek to know and acknowledge our unique selves (the journey of the Soul) and do what we love (the work of the Spirit), the more we know what sets us on fire and the more we honor our whole selves… We spring to life offering inspiration that others may also find the core of who they are; what matters, what they must do, be, and live a happy and satisfying life. To look back and say, “Yes, I knew myself. Yes I gave all I had. Yes, I did all I wanted. Yes – I did this life right and just.”
The Soul, if denied, withers and yet, never does it die while we are alive. Instead, it haunts us. It is the angry, impatient, brash man on the bus, the woman who looks like she’s always crying. Do you know someone like this? She walks with a hankie, her leaky eyes crying subtle tears of the Soul craving to be discovered, honored, played with and the Spirit, hoping to express itself, needing to take its important place in this life.
May you take this day of rest and remember who you are and why you came here. May you do at least one thing with this day that makes today worthy of your living. May you sustain yourself for this lifelong journey by uncovering what you love. There is no right answer. The only requirement is that you do something to express the Spirit and nurture the Soul. How you do it is entirely up to you.
A good indicator that you’re on the right track is:
- Do you feel like your whole body is smiling from the inside out at even the mere thought of this action or activity?
- Do you want to help others? (when we’re happy and our needs are met, we want the same for others and tend to support others more fully)
- Do you want to up and leave behind what you had to honor this new Spirit and Soul connection? (Many people want to get up, get out, and live when they’ve opened the flood gates of goodness. The sky is the limit)
- Do you feel satisfied by your daily life? (at the end of the day, do you smile, knowing you did what you wanted?)
Now go, get out there and knock your socks off with goodness! Try new things, retry old things, think in new ways, focus on your interests, take curiosity in the world around you and LIVE out all of who you are!
To brilliant, awesome, wonderful you!
Lacy
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