“You don’t have a soul, Doctor. You are a soul, you have a body, temporarily.”

– A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller, Jr

 

It is important to look after our bodies, making sure they have the correct nutrition, exercise, etc, in order to maintain a relatively comfortable life, but in our current society and culture we err to this side, often without conscious thought or willing intent. We deify our physical existence to the neglect of our soul.

 

Too much emphasis and time spent on our outer appearance betrays us. Because when that emphasis is indulged and we venerate our physical existence, the result is the trade-off of our deeper character and the potential compromise of a transcendent destiny.

 

If we care so much (or don’t care at all) about our bodies, the results of food and the presence or lack of exercise, then surely a parallel exists with our inner person, our soul. And surely the principle of what we choose to do to our physical bodies and the resultant consequences can be applied to our souls.

 

A very wise man once said that the eyes and the ears are the window to the soul.

 

There is more to this life than what we see with our eyes…a lot more.

If our eyes and ears are the window to our soul, that means there is a way of nourishing our soul and conversely, destroying it too.

Our youthful bodies will age, lose their luster and appeal, but the gift we are given is time. Where time ages and eventually breaks down our physical bodies, if we allow ourselves, time can enrich, strengthen and beautify our souls.

 

That’s why when we make the mistake of making this life primarily about our physical existence and what we see, we will become despondent at our looming frailty, but when we choose to see that life is not just what we see, but abundantly more, the march of time stops becoming the enemy and can become a tool to be better in who we are.

 

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(I understand that life, and living it out, is an incredibly complex process, and at times cruel. The purpose of this is to alight to the positive nutrition of our soul in the midst of a world where the endeavour of that practice is often insidiously hidden from view.)