Rest...and seek truth

It is wonderful for us to soak up the beauty of the world around us and to participate in creating beauty.  But beauty must be balanced by truth or it can easily become frivolous.  In order to find balance, you need a perspective from outside of yourself to inform your soul.  You need a strong fulcrum on which the balance of your life can rest.

Today, seek truth to instruct and strengthen your soul.

Rest...and think

In case you are not aware, New York Fashion Week was last week.  To many people, fashion is a religion and Fashion Week can be a worshipful experience.  Because of my love for all things creative and beautiful, the "top 1/3" of my soul is tempted to follow after this ever-changing (and expensive) god.  I have to admit that the debut of the Fall/Winter collections in New York is one of my favorite weeks of the whole year (and in this coming week, I'm going to show you what I loved about it.)  But in the end, it doesn't satisfy the "bottom 1/3" of my soul - the deepest part. 

What satisfies the "bottom 1/3" of your soul?

Are you an escape artist?



Jump by Doug Flora.  Photo by Dan Irwin.


Do you spend part of your day trying to escape from the rest of it?  Your escape could be anything you choose that does not add to your life - TV, internet, food, exercise, shopping, gossip, etc.  (Escaping feels different from simply relaxing.)  An escape is an attempt to expand your soul that does not go far enough. 

I've been an escape artist all of my life, but my husband is slowly teaching me to say regarding my problems, "What can we do about this?" rather than entering a downward spiral of introspection.  This brings me to my mantra for the past year - "If you don't like your life, change it."  Figure out what you are escaping from and change it.  Then examine your "escape" to see if it represents something your soul needs.  Go for it in a more productive way.

Start small, but think big.

Saying "YES"!

So, my first issue was learning to say "no".  (Still working on that - more to come in future posts.)  But to what should I say "yes"? 

I asked myself, "What does my soul crave?"  I wrote down all of the answers that came to my mind.  The overarching theme seemed to be a phrase I heard years ago - "truth, beauty, and love".  All three are essential.  If you lose one, you become unbalanced. 

What form should "truth, beauty, and love" take in my life?  Obviously, I want to retain my position as wife to my husband and mother to my children.  This position seems to be primarily about love but based on truth and needs beauty to be enjoyable.  Beyond that, I feel I have a dream in my DNA to artistically create something bigger than myself.   This dream is initially driven by a pursuit of beauty but starts to die when I do not incorporate the meaningfulness of love and the reality of truth. 

What does your soul crave?  What dream is in your DNA?