{"id":204,"date":"2012-08-26T05:00:00","date_gmt":"2012-08-26T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/84646c1b-2d69-4959-992a-0efb9f083c31"},"modified":"2012-08-26T05:00:00","modified_gmt":"2012-08-26T05:00:00","slug":"a-conversation-on-soul-making","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/thewonderchildblog.com\/?p=204","title":{"rendered":"A Conversation on Soul-Making"},"content":{"rendered":"

A
\nConversation on Soul-Making <\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

My friend
\nJean Raffa\u2019s writing has been inspiring me for a couple years now\u2014ever since I
\ndiscovered her work on her blog, Matrignosis<\/a>. 
\nThe other day she wrote a post, \u201cSoul-Making Half Way In Between<\/a>,\u201d and
\nthis story popped out as a response\/reply. 
\nI am grateful to Jeanie for her kind and wise encouragement and
\npermission to leave such long comments on her blog.  Anyway, here\u2019s a story I posted as a comment
\nfor her piece.  I thought you might like it.  It’s a transcription of a conversation I overheard between a kindly old man and the Divine Child as I sat up in the Tree of Life daydreaming.  Let me know what you think, let’s keep the conversation going. <\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

\n<\/p>\n


<\/span><\/p>\n

The Journey<\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n


<\/span><\/p>\n

Along a
\nshadow-dappled path on a late summer evening, a child and an old man walk
\ndiscussing many topics of great interest: their favorite painters and poets,
\nthe art of brewing tea, water divining, and the ever self-revealing topic of soul-making.<\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no
\nfinish line on that journey,\u201d said the child to the old man.<\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIs that why
\nwe make everything into a race?\u201d asked the old man, \u201cIt would seem we like
\nfinish lines.\u201d<\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI suppose,\u201d
\nlaughed the child, \u201cwe all like to imagine and to feel a sense of completion.\u201d<\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cSo it\u2019s OK
\nto want conclusions?\u201d<\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cOf course,
\nprovided you remember that conclusions are just doorways to new beginnings.\u201d<\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cSo nothing
\nends?\u201d<\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cOh things
\nend,\u201d said the child, \u201cjust not in the way we\u2019re taught to understand endings.  In the movies they flash a big, \u2018The End,\u2019 so
\nwe know to get up and leave–in case we didn\u2019t know.  Everything gets tied up nicely.  In reality, however, when something ends, when
\nEnlightenment dawns, when a soul awakens, it often happens after, or during, a
\nnot-so tidy experience.  Sometimes it\u2019s a
\nlittle messy, rough around the edges, torn, broken, wrinkled, worn out.  But if one looks at our brothers and sisters
\nof the cicada variety and the caterpillar variety, and the hatchling and the
\ntadpole variety; the autumn leaves, late, late evenings like this one, we would
\nsee that endings are really wildly transformative and colorful beginnings.\u201d<\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not
\nsure I want wildly transformative beginnings.\u201d<\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re not
\nalone,\u201d said the child, \u201cI am guessing when the cicada nymph\u2019s back splits and
\nits wings spill out that it feels both painful and relieved, much like the scratching
\nof a deep itch.  I wonder how it feels to
\nbe the caterpillar spinning its own shroud in rhythmic pulsations, and then
\ndissolving into an alchemical substance that will eventually take the shape of
\na butterfly.  Really, think of that a
\nmoment\u2014caterpillars dissolve<\/i> in their
\ncocoons.  They liquefy.  What must that be like?\u201d<\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cA bit like
\nlosing oneself in grief, perhaps,\u201d offered the old man.<\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cLosing
\noneself into anything you love,\u201d said the child, \u201cTears and heart-softening
\nembraces happen when we\u2019re happy or sad. 
\nMy point is it\u2019s probably a difficult transition\u2014from fully-bellied,
\nexhausted caterpillar to churning, golden liquid; to deep dreaming; to powdery
\nwinged enlightenment.\u201d<\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cDid you
\nknow that the word \u2018chrysalis\u2019 comes from the Greek, \u2018khrysos,\u2019 meaning gold?\u201d<\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI did know
\nthat,\u201d said the child, \u201cthank you for reminding me.  The whole enlightenment process, even the
\ndifficult parts where we seeming lose ourselves\u2014is golden.\u201d<\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe we
\nlike finish lines because we get to rest, or because we imagine the pain and
\nhard work will be over?\u201d<\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cSomething
\nlike that,\u201d said the child, \u201cif we actually learn to settle into periods of
\nrest and inactivity, so-called \u2018endings\u2019 wouldn\u2019t come as undesirable surprises.  After all, the tide comes in and the tide recedes.  The morning dawns and the night awakens.  The body slips into the harbor of sleep and
\nrises with the songbirds to work the fields. 
\nEndings are the shadows of beginnings. Enlightenment is the sister of
\ndarkness.\u201d<\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt would
\nseem a healthy practice then to enjoy the journey,\u201d said the old man.<\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cYes!\u201d
\nshouted the child happily, \u201cThat\u2019s the key. 
\nAllow yourself to be blessed by the very path itself, and by the walking
\nand the movement, the rest times, and the dancing.  Allow yourself to revel in the ability to
\nmove and to learn, to be able to stumble and rise again.  This gratitude opens all doors at the so-called
\nend of the road.  And when one steps
\nthrough the gates they find themselves in a mansion that is really a universe; that
\nis really one world within another, one body of light giving way to other
\nbodies of light; there are rooms within rooms in the mansion of heaven, souls
\nwithin souls, embraces within embraces. 
\nThe valleys rise and the mountains bow. 
\nBeds are carried on currents of dreams, and dreams spill over into
\nkitchens and living rooms, classrooms and churches.  New myths are told and stories bloom in the
\nminds and hearts of children. Gardens break forth into gardens, caresses drip
\ninto caresses, desires are fulfilled only to give birth to children named,
\n\u201cGratitude,\u201d \u201cProsperity,\u201d \u201cSuccess.\u201d 
\nAnd then these go out into the world to play only to discover entirely
\nnew cities and open new gates, enter new heavens, explore new forests.  Yes, enjoy the journey,\u201d said the child, \u201cand
\nknow that enjoying the journey means sometimes you will stumble, fall, want to
\ngive up.  That\u2019s all a part of it.  We do grow tired and weary sometimes.  Enlightenment doesn\u2019t necessarily mean
\nboundless energy; it just means there\u2019s clearer light to see where to go next.\u201d<\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhat do we
\ndo when we grow tired and weary?\u201d asked the old man.<\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cRest,\u201d said
\nthe child, \u201cPause.  Breathe.  Allow yourself to dissolve into doing
\nnothing, stop where you are on the dance floor and rest your head against the
\nshoulder of your partner.  Let them glide
\nyou along.\u201d<\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cSo part of
\nthe journey is resting.\u201d<\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cYes.  And part of the journey is learning to live
\nwith incompleteness and imperfections. 
\nThink of the tadpole when it\u2019s close to becoming a frog.  It still has a tail.  And it probably doesn\u2019t try to hide it like
\nwe might.  But it belongs to two
\nworlds\u2014the fish and the frog.  It has a
\nsort of identity crisis, only it probably isn\u2019t a crisis because it simply
\naccepts this temporary tail as part of the plan.  We\u2019d probably feel embarrassed at not quite
\nbeing fully frog; we would think we\u2019re not enlightened until we lost our tail.\u201d<\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re
\nsaying the journey is imperfect?\u201d<\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cNo, the
\njourney is perfect.  It\u2019s just that we
\nwalk it imperfectly, which in the grand scheme of things, is perfect anyway,
\njust as the clouds look all jumbled and yet somehow manage to look beautiful as
\nthey travel across the sky. We are enlightened here and now, it\u2019s just that we
\nthink too much about what that means and the experience gets lost in ideas and
\nexpectations.\u201d<\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cLet me try
\nand sum this up,\u201d said the old man.<\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cOK,\u201d
\nlaughed the child.<\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no
\nfinish line to the journey of life, to enlightenment.  There are pauses, deep breaths,
\ntransformations, rest stops, but no actual endings.  Endings are beginnings with different
\nnames.  They\u2019re twins.  Also, we cannot travel the road
\nperfectly.  We will stumble sometimes or
\nget caught with our tails still showing. 
\nBut in the end\u2026\u201d<\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s a
\npun,\u201d interrupted the child.<\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cOh dear,\u201d
\nlaughed the old man, \u201cSo it is.  In the
\nend, or at the end of the day, whatever we call it, the night comes, our own
\ncosmic cocoon descends, and we dissolve into sleep and dreams only to wake up
\nthe next morning, born again, refreshed, renewed, transformed, and ready for
\nmore.\u201d<\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cSounds good
\nto me,\u201d said the child, \u201cand there\u2019s one more thing about the journey that is
\nperhaps the most important thing of all.\u201d<\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s
\nthat?\u201d<\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

And as the
\nold man waits for an answer, the child slips his hand into his.  <\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe go
\ntogether,\u201d said the child, \u201cthe journey is shared.  It belongs to us all.  We can only walk alone so far.  We all need to be carried sometimes and we
\nall need to carry others.  And when we
\nreach those views, those heavenly plateaus, they are heavenly precisely because
\nwe are sharing them with others.  Heaven
\nis heaven because it is the coming together of people and loves, desires and
\ndreams\u2014all spilling into one ocean, one song, one dazzling and exquisite
\nembrace.\u201d<\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI like
\nthat,\u201d said the old man, \u201cthank you for going with me.\u201d<\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

And as they
\ncontinued walking deep into the night, the moon untangled herself from the
\ntrees and drifted easily into view.  The
\nsun tucked his face gently into the bosom of the night, and the child turned to
\nthe old man and smiled.  It was the smile
\nof the future and of endless beginnings.<\/span><\/p>\n


<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

Copyright Joseph Anthony of the Wonder Child Blog<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Conversation on Soul-Making  My friend Jean Raffa\u2019s writing has been inspiring me for a couple years now\u2014ever since I discovered her work on her blog, Matrignosis.  The other day she wrote a post, \u201cSoul-Making Half Way In Between,\u201d and this story popped out as a response\/reply.  I am grateful to Jeanie for her kind […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2,16],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/thewonderchildblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/thewonderchildblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/thewonderchildblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thewonderchildblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thewonderchildblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=204"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/thewonderchildblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/thewonderchildblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=204"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thewonderchildblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=204"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thewonderchildblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=204"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}