Soul
Acquaintance
“The
essence of a person is not the clothing she wears or the things he
does...Your essence is not even your history, culture, race or what
you think and do. It is your soul.”
Gary Zukav
Most of us don't think
too much about our souls—at least that's been my experience. We're
caught up in the day-to-day living of life. We put lots of energy
into the way we look, and the work we do, the family and friends we
have. All our days are crammed with activities of existence. When
asked questions about ourselves, we are most likely to answer with
the roles we play—I'm a man or woman, a mother or father, a lawyer
or a banker...we have superficial identifiers that tell what we put
our time and energy into. Rarely, do we think of ourselves as a soul
on a journey.
Perhaps, this is because
the soul is such a nebulous, ephemeral part of us—we see it as
ghostly and insubstantial. It's a bit spooky, so we keep it in the
background and out of mind. But the soul is our most authentic self.
It is the substance of our existence, and determines everything
else—how we make choices, how we treat our fellow humans, what
underlies our world view. We have a particular personal history that,
at birth, sets us into a particular time and place, in a certain
circumstance and family, but it is the soul that determines where we
go from there. Sisters and brothers born into the same family have
drastically different experiences and interpretations of the same
event. Each of us, even identical twins, walk the path our soul is
here to take.
When the external
identifiers fall away, all the labels, all the roles we play in the
world of men, the soul is what remains. Sometimes, only then do we
get a clear glimpse of it. Looking from the vantage point of our
souls, we realize many things about ourselves—we are strong, we are
compassionate, we are clear-headed, we know right from wrong, we are
related to every other soul and the earth itself. The wisdom of the
soul is our most real and lasting substance—because it's old,
because it has always been, and because it continues on. That soul is who
we are.
In the Spirit,
Jane
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