Soulfood

 

 

This is what the spiritual journey is all about. Our spiritual journey consists in nourishing and watering and caring for this God-seed that is in all of us. 

Matthew Fox

Nourishment of the soul supports our living with fullness, love, and tenderness for ourselves and others.  Money, livelihood, friendships, even health would lack meaning without the soul.  By soul, I mean the part of ourselves that is more than our bodies and minds, the life force coursing through all things that connects us to the great mystery of life. It is the part of ourselves, the deepest part, that remains untouched by all of our losses.  The soul is that part which cannot be tarnished by neglect as it belongs to God.

When I sink back into an awareness of soul, my experience of the world opens up.  Day to day things become holy, the getting up and sitting down, the sun on my face, the help for a friend.  Even the irritations, the impatience, the judgements become holy as they work to remind me of my disconnection to the soul and the fear, grief, and shame wounds that long for healing. It is through the soul that I feel the gift of the breath, the awe in the life I have been given, the preciousness in each day’s unfolding.

I have been lucky to have had a lifelong longing for God even when I did not know it was God I was searching for.  Because this has led me to a practice that nourishes my soul. Without intentional, regular, and disciplined practice, our minds would be too scattered and self-absorbed to experience the soul which resides deep inside that quiet still place. We would remain on the surface layer of things.  It is through the soul that we get some relief from our harmful jealousies, resentments, irritations.  With practice, we touch the soul and then can allow ourselves to be transformed and healed so we might be a conduit for compassion, peace, and ease in the world.