SOUL SEARCHING

Years ago I learned that one's soul is comprised of the mind, the will and the emotions.
On my own, I began to see how God's love encapsulates my soul. Holding it tightly.
Or maybe it's vice versa----maybe my soul, as a believer is a vessel for His love.

Recent reads have offered other definitions of one's soul. Roger Rosenblatt, in his book, Boy Detective, speaks of taking his "two souls on a walk"---one for the senses and one for the mind. I disagree that they never connect but that might just be a point of semantics. According to him, the mind's soul is the point of deepest thinking and our heart's soul, the point of deepest feeling.
Certainly his lyrical allegory of "two souls leading parallel lives, though never meeting, yet connected---move side by side as they move into eternity, like legs on a walk." was an interesting, albeit different, perspective. (Rosenblatt, p.8)

Gregory Boyle also added knew depth to my "soul searching" in his book, Tattoos on the Heart The Power of Boundless Compassion. Boyle's experiences (and successes) as the head of a ministry to gangs in LA is beyond my wildest imaginations. I have no point of reference other than "breaking news" segments on TV. However, I gained many jewels from this eye-opening book. An easy read of case studies, of sorts.

• Choice is not to focus on the narrow but to narrow our focus. (p.3 1) 
• Kinship is not serving the other, but being one with the other. Jesus was not a man for others; He was one with them. (p. 188)
• As we belong to one another, we let others feel their worth! (p.196)

My favorite reminder was from the lyrics of "O Holy Night"---"Long lay the world in sin and error pining----til He appeared and the soul felt its worth."
Soul-ful words worth searching for and remembering as  one soul reaches out to another.

Passing Time While Waiting

Can't waiting be more than just "whiling away the hours?"

Spending time at West Clinic today as I waited for a friend's radiation treatment to "finish up," I picked up a book, to "finish up" my morning read.  Roger Rosenblatt's, making toast, "a painfully beautiful memoir....how people die out of order." (E.L. Doctorow)

It became more than "passing time" as I came across a few jewels. 

When the author's grandaughter responded to her "Boppo's" comment that children have no power... 

"That's not true, Boppo," she said. "We have the power of thought and kindness." (p. 159)

Rosenblatt's summation of a book review he had written (Deaf Sentence) concerning Desmond  Bates visit to Auschwitz, " '...I see how one was unable to value the passing time.' "

"As far as I can tell, this is how to live---to value the passing time." (p. 157)

 A needed reminder ---when in a season of waiting, value the passing time.