My soul is a strange country
Randolph Stow
Soul language is slippery. “My soul is a strange country” (Randolph Stow) and is impossible to define. It bears out what Erasmus said: that “every definition is a misfortune”.
I am trying to keep a soul alive in times not hospitable to the soul.
J.M. Coetzee
No-one can know God that has not first known himself. Go to the depths of the soul, the secret place…to the roots, and to the heights, for all that God can do is focused there.
Meister Eckhart
Image: Kim En Joong, Huile_1065_01
You need chaos in your soul
to give birth to a dancing star.
Friedrich Nietzsche
Remember what God-as-Spirit does – hovering over the face of the waters at the creation of the world- bringing cosmos out of chaos.
We too often fear chaos, when we need to accept it and embrace it. The chaos is fertile, primal, energetic creativity, the building blocks of life itself.
The day came when to risk to remain tight in a bud was
more painful than the risk it took to blossom.
Anais Nin
Image: Kim En Joong, Huile_1079_01
Care of the soul is not self-improvement. It is not an escape or release from the troubles and pain of human existence. Our way of being in the world (our spirituality) needs soul, or soul-fullness, which includes a deep intelligence, a sensitivity to the symbolic, imaginative life, genuine community, and commitment to the world. Soul-work means pain and waiting, self-knowledge and self-acceptance. Soul craves time and room for reflection, and seeks opportunities for it to reveal itself.
To the soul (Thomas Moore says):
Memory is more important than planning
art more compelling than reason
and love more fulfilling than understanding.
Image: Kim En Joong, Huile_1073_01
As you think about soul, “the strange country of your soul”, trust your imagination. It is a source of knowledge. It speaks the language of transcendence, and reveals a new level of reality to us. In tapping into this “hidden” language, the images that arise release emotions and move us to action. The language of the imagination evokes rather than explains.
The images in this post are of oil paintings by Pe Kim En Joong, a South Korean artist living in France. He is a Dominican priest who has devoted his life’s work to representing abstract, non-figurative works, the starting point of a quest for the divine mystery. For more information visit Kim En Joong’s website.
And for something gentle and joyful here is a recording of two songs by Mamuse, an acoustic folk duo from Chico, California, made up of Karisha Longaker and Sarah Nutting. Known for their soulful harmonies and light, bright lyrics, these women have said that they want their music to bring spiritual uplift and to connect people to the richness of life.
We shall be known by the company we keep
by the ones who circle round to tend these fire
We shall be known by the ones who sow and reap
the seeds of change alive from deep within the earth
It is time now
It is time now that we thrive
It is time we lead ourselves into the well
It is time now, and what a time to be alive
In this great turning we shall learn to lead in love
In this great turning we shall learn to lead in love
Mamuse
How to go about it
How to let this river run free
All the mountains shouting
Free the well of love within me
Bow, bow down beside it
Lean into the love of loving
There’s no doubt about it
You can bet that river’s singing
Oh, the will of sorrow
Is to make clean these springs of joy
In this here, now gone tomorrow
We are bound and we have choice
Hear that river calling
Calling us into our calling
Wade out in that water
Dream the dream the river’s dreaming
Oh, the will of sorrow
Is to make clean these springs of joy
In this here, now gone tomorrow
We are bound and we have choice
K. Longaker
For a printable PDF of the text of this meditation please click on the link below.
