"We are all born with souls in perfect form.
As time goes on, we are subject to powers of deformation, from within as well
as without, that twist us into shapes alien to the shape of the soul. But the
soul never loses its original form and never stops calling us back to our
birthright integrity…[When we are in safe sacred community] we are invited to
conform our lives to the shape of our own souls. In a circle of trust, we can
grow our selfhood like a plant–from the potential within the seed of the soul,
in ground made fertile by the quality of our relationships, toward the light of
our own wholeness, trusting the soul to know its own shape better than any
external authority possibly can.”
—Parker Palmer, from A Hidden Wholeness: The Journey Toward an Undivided Life
I am writing a sermon which I will be giving next Friday night, and one of the main themes is the journey toward wholeness. The upcoming Torah reading talks about this journey, and holds up a mirror for us to look squarely and unequivocally at ourselves and the ways we impede our own path to liberation. We need each other on this journey, and we need to own up to the ways we betray our own souls by refusing to take necessary risks, refusing to hold the hand that reaches out for us; we stick to what is familiar and comfortable even if it perpetuates our own suffering.
Just when I needed a glimpse of what it might have felt like before we lost sight of our own soul, I discovered this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qR3rK0kZFkg
Imagine the possibilities if we all started our day this way.