The Soul's Language

Soul-Subtle

“But the soul practices a different kind of math and logic. It presents images that are not immediately intelligible to the reasoning mind. It insinuates, offers fleeting impressions, persuades more with desire than with reasonableness. In order to tap the soul's power, one has to be conversant with its style, and watchful. The soul's indications are many, but they are usually extremely subtle.”

                                  Thomas Moore (Care of the Soul)

One of my favorite television shows is NCIS. I watch reruns of reruns and know every plot and almost every line in some. My favorite character is, of course, Leroy Jethro Gibbs. Not only does he wear that name proudly, he is a man of intense independence and spirit. When he's not solving murders, he's sanding away at a wooden boat in his basement and sipping bourbon from a Mason jar. He has secrets, loves deeply his dead wife and daughter, and is guided more by his gut than his head. In short, Jethro has soul. He pays attention to the subtleties of life and is never, ever caught up in it's passing fads and fancies.

You can recognize people—real people—who have soul by the fact that they stand out in a crowd, not because they're the loudest or the most beautiful, but because of their quiet solidness. They never toot their own horn, but if you ask them a question, will look you in the eye and give you the best answer they can. Or tell you they don't know. They have presence, as though they are at all times fully occupying their own body. That intensity, when their focus is you, can be a little intimidating, because you are immediately aware that this person sees you as you are. If you lie to them they will know it. They expect the same kind of transparency from you as you see in them.

The soul speaks its own language and that language does not come from the verbal centers of the brain. It comes instead in images, impressions, body language, chance encounters, uneasiness, synchronicity, gut-feelings, intuition. To hear soul-speak requires focus and trust that what you feel is what is real. The soulful person “lives in the world, but is not of the world.” You know them. You may even be one.

                                                In the spirit,

                                                    Jane