Sometimes it’s easy to live slightly detached from my body, especially when I experience a lot of physical pain in that body. As I age I am attempting to live more in my body instead of escaping. The question I ask myself regularly is…
What is My Soul’s Address?
Where am I now?
And my answer always remains (until I shed this body), “I’m in this body—here—now—in this moment—in every moment.” As I watch actors and actresses, singers, and other public figures whom I admire die, along with the loss of friends and family members, my mind slides towards worrying about aging and losing loved ones. I can either fight the inevitable aging that is occurring in my body (which won’t change its inevitability) or rejoice that I am still here in this body, living each day. Most days I choose to rejoice. But sometimes I worry.
Whether you are sick or well, lovely or irregular, there comes a time when it is vitally important to your spiritual health to drop your clothes, look in the mirror, and say, “Here I am. This is the body-like-no-other that my life has shaped. I live here. This is my soul’s address.” After you have taken a good look around, you may decide that there is a lot to be thankful for, all things considered. Bodies take real beatings. That they heal from most things is an underrated miracle. That they give birth is beyond reckoning.
― Barbara Brown Taylor, An Altar in the World: A Geography of Faith
Yesterday I returned to a class I had begun a couple of months ago called BAPS (Balance, Agility, Power, and Strength). I missed several classes while I was sick with and recovering from Covid. By the end of class yesterday I wished for a different address for my soul. My body was stiff and sore all over. But I know from previous experience that within a week or two of attending class that instead of feeling sore all over, I’ll feel better with less pain, less stiffness, and more strength.
Sometimes getting stronger requires a kind of effort that may cause pain initially. I hate it that this is the way it goes for my body. But I’m thankful for this address my soul lives at and will do what I can to keep it healthy and habitable.
Other Challenges
There is much in the world right now that could be a cause for worry. And some days (I admit) it all feels like too much. Instead of wallowing in worry I try to look at the history of the world and see how so much has happened and how things have changed. Then I count the blessings of my life. And I remind myself that my work is to lean into love, not fear. So I look out my windows at the beauty of the trees, the birds at my bird feeders, the changing light throughout the day and I realize that the world is still full of possibility. All I can do is to choose actions that I believe move me towards right action. I strive to pay attention to what is here now instead of worrying about the future. And I try to see and share the beauty and joy of living in this perfectly imperfect world.
The ‘all too short lease of summer’ ends. The planet comes into balance, equinox. We are reminded during these gentle, balanced days that our lives forever encompass conflicting realities, yin and yang, summer and autumn, light and shadow; the secret is to live in balance among them, holding the tension until ‘the third’ appears.
— Marv Hiles The Almanac of the Soul
How are you this beautiful first week of October? What is your soul’s address?
Wishing you a mind free from worry and a body filled with well-being.
May you walk in beauty.
Note: today’s photos from a short walk at French Regional Park this afternoon.
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