You've Got to Be Kidding

OMG.  There has to be a mistake somewhere.  It absolutely cannot be the next to the last day of June!  No.  Simply no way.  It's June 29th???  That is just crazy.  I feel like time is racing by.  And then, on the other hand, with the sameness of each social distancing day, it sometimes seems like time is standing still.  Maybe that's why I haven't written one blog entry this whole month.  Yikes!  So glad I got my act together before July hit.

Ok, got it together.  Now, what to write about?  What is there to say about our world today?  Not much going on, right?  OK, so I'm a joker.  We are living in epic times.  We are on the brink of great potential.  That, at least, is how I choose to see it.  Yes, so much has broken wide open, so much has fallen apart, and so much is changing.  But, when we look deeply, we see that things have been rotten, deeply rotten, for a very long time.  We, dear friends, have been living a bit of a lie.

I am reading this impossible book by one of my mentors, Stephen Jenkinson.  It's called Come of Age and it's a doozy.  Stephen is one of those writers that intrigues the imagination and calls the reader to dig deep.  I'm sure there are those who try to read his work and throw the book down, say a few choice words, and get on with their day.  Yes, he's that challenging.  But he has captured my heart and I am continuing to work to learn from him.  And he has a lot to say about the times we live in.  Here's a review.

One of the outcomes of reading this has been to change Integrative Wisdom Elder Care Coaching & Consulting to "Elders Who Care".  I am realizing I hope to be an elder when I grow old, not just grow old.  If you are interested in following along, you can join in the conversation on the FB page.  In times of great social upheaval, having wise leaders goes a long way in riding the waves of fear and emotional distress.  We seem to be in short supply of wise leaders these days.  Maybe you will want to work to be one.  Maybe you will want to be a voice to help as we navigate these rough waters, helping us get to the other side.

In my personal corner of the world, changes are coming to my neighborhood.  We live in a rural area and we have been spoiled by view like the one in the photo.  While I am aware we don't own the land that is currently being developed, I am also aware that I have an opinion about what is being torn down and what will be built up.  It's out of my hands to change what is happening.  What is in my power is how I will greet the change.  Of course the wisdom comes from knowing what we do have power over and then having the courage to act.  Yep, just like the Serenity Prayer! It is my humble opinion that these times are giving us lots of opportunities to flex our Wisdom Wings.

Ooh, Wisdom Wings.  I like it.  Never wrote those two words together before.  But I am running with it.  Dear Reader, let's try on a pair.  Let's take the wise road.  Let's soar together as we find ways to rebuild a nation that really lives its motto...cause we haven't yet.  But I have hope that we can.  With a new cadre of Elders Who Care, with the rising of our young who call us to be honest, to remove the blinders we've been wearing for hundreds of years, and by beating our Wisdom Wings, we got this!  Our future is bright.  And honest.  And it is time to come of age.  

In Service, 

Your Soul Catalyst Verna

Letting Your Soul Shine

Letting Your Soul Shine

Thomas Moore, in his book, Care of the Soul, states that the soul is not a "thing" but rather a "quality or dimension of experiencing life and ourselves."  I don't know about you, but while I like the idea, I find it harder to relate to a quality than to an entity.  That's why I will write about the soul today as if it is a "thing", and a precious thing at that.  And the cool thing is that every single one of us has one...no need to be jealous or covet another's soul.  We don't have to do anything to keep it either.  We can't lose our soul, ever, no matter what.  But this doesn't mean we don't have responsibilities to our soul, just because we can't lose it.  In fact, if we really could understand how important the soul is, we would spend more time cherishing it and taking it into consideration more often.

But now that I think about it, we aren't very good at taking care of us on most levels.  Often, we struggle to take care of our physical health, we ignore our emotional health, we disregard our spiritual health and we don't even have a clue about our soul.  Or we have wrapped up the world so tightly with our cherished beliefs, we never stop to examine whether those beliefs are still valid in this day and age.

What the heck is going on?  With all the knowledge available to us these days, you'd think we could do a better job of providing our "self" with better TLC.  Tender.  Loving.  Care.
Before I go further, take a minute to reflect.  In what ways have you taken care of your "self" today?  Body?  Mind?  Spirit?  And yes, Soul?

Body    _______________________________
Mind    _______________________________
Spirit   _______________________________
Soul    _______________________________

Did you have at least one thing you did today for YOU in each category?

These don't have to be huge.  Simple is often best.  Taking one second to pause and breathe intentionally counts.  Stopping before you eat and saying a word of thanks.  Choosing to forgo that sweet snack.  Listening to your heartbeat and saying thanks.

Anyway, for this post let's focus on the soul.  Do you have a definition of soul?  Check out the dictionary for interesting responses.  I think I like the one that says that the soul is the "essence of a living being".  Now, let's define essence.  Here's one definition: the intrinsic nature or indispensable quality of something, especially something abstract, that determines its character.  Hey, we're back to the idea that the soul is a quality, not a thing!  Interesting.  At least to me and I hope to you.

This brings up a question:  would you say your day to day life reflects the quality of your character?  What quality does it reflect?  Wait, what's the definition of quality?  OK, here's one:  The standard of something as measured against other things of a similar kind; the degree of excellence of something.

Degree of excellence.  Interesting.  Sounds to me like letting your soul shine means living with the sense that how you live your life matters, that getting in touch with the deepest, truest essence of yourself matters.  And, importantly, it seems that would include all aspects of our nature, not just the ones we accept or think are acceptable to others.

How might that play out for each of us?  Maybe it means we increase our self knowledge.  Maybe it means we take the time to sit in silence and listen to our soul talk.  The mind, the body, and even our spirit can override our deepest intrinsic nature.  Our ego often likes to take control and can really lead us away from our essence.  It's not that the ego is bad, it's just not always trusting of the quiet, the stillness, the vastness that is the soul.

Today, stop and find the time to listen deeply.  Find a way to communicate with your soul.  Then find a way to let your soul shine out in the world.  We need that light.

Let Your Soul Shine

The Story of the Snake

This is a story about a snake.  Now, I am very aware that there are many people who do not like snakes and are horrified by all things snake.  I am very aware that many people seem to have an irrational fear of snakes, as made apparent by people shuddering at just hearing the word.  Snake...

I for one, am not afraid of snakes.  Now, I have a healthy respect for snakes, that is for sure.  But it's the same respect I have for dogs...I don't just reach out to touch them before I am sure it is safe to do so.  But I will admire from a distance and appreciate them, dogs and snakes.

I also appreciate when I have the opportunity to see a snake in its natural habitat.  It seems we are usually so disconnected from nature that we never really get an opportunity to experience the real deal.  Here, at our home in Escondido, Ca. we are sometimes fortunate enough to meet the wilderness eye to eye.  And that's what this story is all about.

It began one weekend with my husband coming to find me.  We were both outside in our yard, but given that we have almost an acre of space, it took us a minute to meet up.  He told me he had just been scared almost to death by a snake!  And, good husband that he is, he knew I would love to experience Snake for myself.

I was so excited.  I hurried over to the area where Snake was when my husband found him.  Sure enough, there she was!

Snake

Now Snake really wanted nothing to do with me or my husband.  But she kindly allowed me to photograph her as she slithered away.

The next day my husband had another encounter with Snake, but I wasn't able to participate this time.  But he told me the tale.  As he was walking the yard, he just, once again, noticed Snake.  This time Snake was approaching one of the many gopher holes that populate our rural garden.  As my husband observed, Snake picked a hole and went in head first.  As he watched, the snake disappeared completely into the earth.  Makes you appreciate there is truly an underground world of which we know little about.

Given that we are not fond of the damage gophers can do to a yard, we were somewhat pleased that this snake was most likely a gopher snake.  Perhaps he might do what we could not, kill a gopher.  It is a fact that we can't make ourselves kill gophers.  We just can't, even when the opportunity presents itself.  We have sat and observed the little buggers come up out of their underground caves, snatch a flower and pull it back down into the tunnel.  Notice I said "observe".  Bye flower.

Anyway, I didn't get to see Snake go undercover.  But my husband still shivers when he recalls the snake disappearing before his eyes.  Did I mention he is not fond of snakes?   He's not.

At any rate, we were both pleased that maybe the natural cycle of life might assist us with our gopher population.  You know, a natural way to keep the numbers down since we weren't going to be doing it.  However, the story of Snake took another turn a few days later.  One that makes me sad still.  

A few days after Snake made her appearance into our lives, as I walked to the street to get the mail, I found Snake lying by the side of the road.  She didn't show any obvious signs of trauma as far as I could tell.  Over five feet of gopher snake lying there.  Just like that, she would no longer be able to assist us with the gophers.  Just like that she had completed her work in the world.

I couldn't bear just leaving her there even though I knew the turkey vultures would likely find her before too long.  I decided to get a stick, gather her up and bring her back onto our property.  I laid her down under one of our trees and vowed to get back to the body as soon as possible and bury her in our garden somewhere.  

However, before I was able to do so, my husband informed me Snake was gone.  The cycle continued with another wild species finding her and doing what comes naturally.  It ate her.  A day later I found what was left: a one foot long piece of Snake left on the ground in the same area where she had gone underground to find her prey.

Now, you may wonder why I felt it important enough to write about this sad tale.  Sad to me anyway.  First, I guess I wanted to memorialize Snake a little bit.  She really allowed us to see the cycle of life and vicariously participate in it.  I also think I wanted to see if those people who had seen my FB post about Snake and had responded negatively, I wondered if they would be sad to hear of her demise.  But, there's one more thing my mind ponders.  And it's this:

What if we equate her journey with ours?  We are here for a short time.  We do our thing.  Then, just like that, we are gone.  The cycle of birth, life, death.  Of course, I really don't imagine that Snake was conscious of her place in the universe.  I don't imagine she wondered if she had made a difference in her short time on earth.  I would be surprised to find out she suffered at all.  And yet...

What do I know?  After starting to write this story I decided to research a bit.  And imagine my surprise to find that more is known about snakes' inner lives than I was aware of.  Here's an amazing story to read:

Snakes Have Friends Too

Drats.  Well, I am glad that we didn't do anything to harm Snake.  I have to come to terms with the fact that in this case the cycle of life played out.  While I am sad, I am glad to have been able to see the cycle and been a small part of it.  I guess I also hope that, after reading this story, you might think differently about snakes and about the treatment of them.  Of course, that could lead to treating other animals better and maybe even other humans.

I hope so.

Here's to Snake, and to snakes everywhere.  And, here's to your life's journey.  Be sure you are doing your thing, living your life, and appreciating your place in the universe.  Wake up each day and vow to marvel at the world and your place in it.  Trust in the goodness of life.  Don't despair, and never give up.We don't know when the end of our cycle here on earth will come.  It will come.  Until it does, here's to you and to me.  

Hugs and love,

Verna, your soul catalyst