#LentVoices : Releasing and Gaining Your Soul

Souls are often talked about – soul mates, soul friendship, good for your soul. Yet it remains something that cannot be identified even with the best medical scanning technology. The soul is a rich mysterious term that resonates with people, yet many times leaves a longing. “What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul?”(Mark 8:36)

In the Disney film ‘Soul’ Joe’s mum tells him “Lord knows we need more Teachers”, it offers him a fulfilling job, but this is not where his soul is. The story is the search for meaning, much like Solomon wondered about thousands of years before in Ecclesiastes. What is it all about, why are we here?

Nature holds a rhythm and pattern that doesn't question this existence, but embraces it in signs of daffodils pushing through the earth, buds peeking out onto bare branches. There is something hidden within the depths of a trunk or a bulb, the unseen that becomes visible, following a pattern and journey. There are moments within this becoming of releasing what was to allow the fulness of what is. Those first buds on a branch through to unfurling into luscious green. The bulb pushing from the depths of darkness towards the light, slowly opening, reaching upwards as its inner beauty becomes visible to all.

The westernised adaptation of the Japanese concept of Ikigai is based on finding joy in life through purpose. As so many of us are worn and tired from "doing" it is helpful to see at the heart, the place of ikigai. is the form of a Cross or Flower - symbols of new life. As we release ourselves and the outer packages may we seek to draw closer to the heart and find the soul spaces of deep joy.