Is your soul hungry?

Caring for Your Soul

“In all forms of learning, you give birth to pure strength of character.

You feed the soul.

You make understanding true.

You guide and govern the powers of knowledge.”

                  Ancient Orphic Hymn as recorded by

                 Thomas Moore (The Re-Enchantment of Everyday Life)

In my growing-up years, music was a constant in our household. My grandmother, who lived with us, was a classically trained pianist. My mother had been a swing and jitterbug dancer in her youth, and she and my daddy loved everything from big bands and ragtime, to crooners like Perry Como and Ann Murray. Regardless of how crazy everything around us was, there was always music. Rock and roll, bandstand, country and soul train came along in their time. And of course, there was gospel and church music. When times were rough, as they often were, my mother would listen to Old Rugged Cross, or Tennessee Ernie Ford singing hymns. Sometimes, I think music was the glue that knit body and soul together for all of us.

The other great gift my family gave me was a love of reading. Some of my earliest memories are of going to the library with my mother, filling a grocery bag full of books and toting them home. We all read everyday. I have a sweet image of my dad, lying in bed with an ice cream bar in one hand and a book in the other. We read to one another, too. My sister, Jerrie, was three years older than I, and a better reader. She read books to me until I was thirteen or fourteen.

According to Thomas Moore, “...a lesson we badly need in a time of uninspired pragmatism—the absolute need of the soul for constant interaction with the muses.” These are those times. We need to find what beauty, joy and inspiration we can to shine light into the gloom. Life long infusions of learning, music, art and poetry, are essential tools for getting through tough times. Exposing oneself to new experiences, new tasks, new challenges, keeps the brain synapses firing and your juices flowing. And it costs nothing to re-read the classics, visit historic sites, or knock around town to look at different styles of architecture. Keeping the brain engaged in learning is critical to aging gracefully.

The soul is like any other living thing. It must be fed, loved, cared for, inspired. Find your muse today. Keep your spirit satisfied and it will, in turn, give you pleasure through all of your years.

                                          In the spirit,

                                          Jane