Welcoming the Soul

Tonight is our first Wellspring Session of the year. I can't even begin to put into words what a difference the Wellspring experience has made in my life. It has given me a way to explore my faith and spirituality in ways that I never imagined. It has deepened my spiritual awareness and ability to discover the inner voice of my soul and that alone is a beautiful gift.

As our group embarks on our Wellspring journey together, tonight we begin by "Welcoming the Soul". Seem strange? Doesn't everyone have a soul that they carry with them? Why do we need to "welcome" it?

Perhaps we should start by really exploring... What is the soul? The answer to this question may be different for everyone, but in simplest terms, the soul is our true self. The voice inside. That person we were born to be that, for whatever reason, we lost track of but are always seeking. Maybe we were chastised as a child for a certain behavior, maybe we were ridiculed for sharing a certain belief or dream, maybe we were flat out told that there were certain expectations for the path that we would take in life and that we really didn't have a choice. Whatever the cause, we all lose track of our true self, our soul, at one point in our life. So how do we find it again? How do we "welcome" it back?

Parker Palmer, in his book "A Hidden Wholeness",  compares the soul to a wild animal. It is strong and resilient, but it is also shy.

"Just like a wild animal, it seeks safety in the dense underbrush, especially when other people are around. If we want to see a wild animal, we know that the last thing we should do is go crashing through the woods yelling for it to come out. But if we will walk quietly into the woods, sit patiently at the base of a tree, breathe with the earth, and fade into our surroundings, the wild creature we seek might put in an appearance. We may see it only briefly and only out of the corner of an eye - but the sight is a gift we will always treasure as an end in itself."

I love this analogy, because for me, sitting quietly under a tree, would be the place that my soul would definitely "show up". I feel so at home in nature and it is where I feel the most connected to my soul and to the universe as a whole.

This is why I love Wellspring. As part of this group we intentionally hold space for our souls to feel the quiet and safety to show up and be present and teach each of us a little bit about our true selves. It is in this way that we experience the spiritual deepening, or wholeness, that so many of us seek.

For more information about Wellspring visit the website at uuwellspring.org