heartfelt & the soul

Monday, January 30, 2012


hand inked cards ready to ship to most excellent stockist of 29 Black Street wares - Inkwell

let your mind start a journey thru a strange new world.
leave all the thoughts of the world you knew before.
let your soul take you where you long to be ...
close your eyes, let your spirit soar,
and you'll live as you've never lived before

Erich Fromm

Soul - it's a word I think that makes a lot of people flinch. Either you embrace it, from perhaps a Christian heart, understand and believe in it's existence completely or you might be in the camp of mild eye rollers. S-O-U-L an esoteric, airy fairy, new age-ish, touchy feely kind of word and one that makes many uncomfortable. But if you take it for it's real meaning–a soul being a person's core, their belief system - the essence of the person you really truly are–then it becomes very fascinating to discover, to uncover & to get to know who your soul really is.

I feel as if it's been a many year archeological dig to uncover my soul. Perhaps the first hit of pick on hard stone was the death of my dog Jake 4 years ago. I wasn't prepared for that Grief. Grief I know now was grief about much more than the death of my best friend - it was grief of a life spent mostly hidden, grief of a fear full heart. Grief piled up in a back room & hidden away. That first hit cracked me open & so many things I felt so sure were true crumbled. Over the next 4 years a serious of events and people, much like the planets being lined up in some extraordinary way,not all random or fluky, but fateful & meant to be - changed me. The good and the bad. New friends, old friends - some great, some not so, a lost job & living gradually turned into brave new opportunities, meeting Doug, finally feeling safe, secure, protected, encouraged & supported and realizing I had been craving all of that for as long as I can remember. A new life spent learning, growing, expanding, opening up in leaps & bounds - leading me here to this moment - NOW

I am just beginning week 3 of a fantastic e-course called Hello Soul, Hello Business - might as well be titled Hello Susan because it's helped me tremendously, through the questions & exercises asked of me, to really see who I am, who my soul is, to trust & believe my intuition, to be who I am not who I think I should be. I'm one of those lucky people who's work, loves & life are all mushed together into one thing. The soul of my business is also the soul of my life. I feel like that soul, my soul is finally seeing the light of day for the first time since maybe I was 10 or 11 - sometime after grade 6 this little girl's soul was buried, as happens to many, under a ton of hard rock & fear - but hey ! she's back. Bonjour Soul !! + I think I kinda like her.

Nothing contributes so much
to tranquilize the mind
as a steady purpose
a point on which the soul may fix it's eye

Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley


I love type, I love a tall, skinny, san-serif font, I love pink + red & I have a brave, bold heart

5 comments:

  1. Oh Susan I'm so glad you've found love and support in so many ways, in the face of all your pain. This post made me cry, and softened my heart... thank you for sharing this journey. And as for finding love, finding soul, finding a focus of the mind - so may it be for all of us.

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  2. archeological dig to uncover my soul -- LOVE THIS!!!

    I echo the sentiments expressed by MakingSpace. Can so relate!

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  3. Hey !! I've been thinking since I posted earlier today it is the human condition - that searching, seeking spirit in us all - in some more than others, in some more urgent or less so. Chez when I was thinking about the archeological digging I was thinking about how it felt in the beginning a pick, a jack hammer was needed to break things up & get things started but now I feel like the archeologist is gently holding pieces of me in his palm & brushing so gently. You know how you see paleontologists working away so gently picking, dusting uncovering & exposing.

    It's hard for me to write posts like this. I'm forever trying to make myself stop, to shut up, to not be so personal but comments like yours (both of you) reminds me that it's OK so merci & xoxo s

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  4. This BRAVEHEART so speaks to me, Susan, because that's what I need to have. I love the hidden word 'art' coming to light! I've been feeling that my art has been helping me have a braveheart!

    Roberta

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