Disgruntling Times…
Disgruntling times call for soul work and soul play.
Disgruntling times invite transformation. They’re a, “Would you like to change or not?” invitation. To change or to calcify? To change or get stuck and play a constant mournful tune? Mournful tunes are necessary for a while, of course. We need to lament the dying and the dead, but for how long? Always, on one level. And on another, it’s time to let go. We are still living.
Soul work and soul play, what’s the difference? The first part is the work; the deciding to, the getting to it, the setting yourself up to do it. Then comes the play, the actual doing it.
Society doesn’t attend to this soul stuff, so that’s why it’s work. It’s work to set it up. To set the container. Parker Palmer wrote some profound words, likening soul to a shy and wild animal who will only show itself wth attentive listening. If we go crashing through the forest the deer will flee but if we are silent and still, she will show herself.
An inner stillness, a dropping in and down. Not much play happening there you might say but the realms are different. We need to shift from the mental to the soulful. To the imaginary. The mythical. The poetic and let your soft animal body love what it loves, to quote Mary Oliver. To walk in nature—the wilder the better—and to be receptive to what may come.
Perhaps you will pose a question before you walk, having listened to your deepest longing, “What do I do with this one precious life?”, (thank you Mary O), or, “How can I serve?”. And perhaps you will not. The question doesn’t have to be a part of it. Just listening and breathing is all that’s required, being open to receive any gifts from wild nature that are speaking to and though your wild soul. And maybe nature will be silent but there is something in that, too. Or you might get a message, a meaning, an image, something whispered on the wind, or delivered in a drop of dew, rain or stream splash. Trilled through some bird song, fluttered on a butterfly’s wing or buzzed by a bee.
You can breathe with your skin, through your pores, the whole country of your skin can inhale the mystery of the forest, the salt of the sea and the clay of the earth.
You can breathe with your heart wide open to the sounds and scents of love and the melody of the earth.
Listen with your gut to what it knows, deep in your belly brain, there is much to be learned.
Imagine.
Photo by Prince David on Unsplash