Sunshine on the Soul

What happens if you don't listen to your soul? Maybe it just leaves you for a better place, and in so doing leaves you an empty shell that only exists because it must, or until it mustn't.

How sad when we don't recognise our moments in the sun; those moments that encourage and caress us with the promise of forever more. Like the sunshine on a patch of paradise they are fleeting and then forever gone. If we could only capture them in our heart they would beat there forever.

I have had many moments in the sun and have enjoyed them all but in different ways. When we are young we enjoy the careless moments, those of unrestrained joy and rapture in the mere fact that they are just there. As we get older, but not necessarily wiser, we tend to mingle our emotions with our new found feelings of adventure and conquest. But then as the sun sets and begins its journey into night we are reminded that our moments are measured and are not necessarily with us eternally, at least not unless we want them to be.

I sat with friends today in the celebration of the spring equinox and it reminded me of times past and present when the thing that one wants most is to be coddled and comforted; to be loved but free; to be happy and sad together; but to be in love with life forever.

So in this equinox of 2011, I am finding myself free and loved by friends; but happy and sad together because I am not coddled and comforted as I might like. I am however still in love with life and that is the first step in regrowing it.

As the day moved along and gently pushed us toward evening I began to feel an awakening within. It was like the sound of a distant shore where the waves relentlessly pound their cadence - a primal call to join in. Every person that I had talked to that day had come to this celebration of life with their cups either half full or in fact overflowing, but after the ritual they had all left a little more complete. It is there, I believe, in that meeting of minds that the secret to a well nourished life can be found. It is not just that we live our lives in the daily drone of the expected but rather that we enhance them with the dazzle of new experiences. Every meeting and every encounter is an opportunity for growth. Whether alone or in pairs we must eventually stand alone in life and either embrace it or reject it but if we do embrace it than what a wonder it can and will be.

Arriving home that evening I sat down in my favorite chair, in my favorite place with my favorite memories and remembered them fondly; and in so doing freed my spirit once more to go forward again.