The Soul ~ It's Not What You Think

The Nature of the Soul - It's Not What You Think

Who am I?

I can say that my name is Linda Goodman. Linda Goodman is a label I wear in this life, but is it who I am?

Okay, I could say I am Mrs Joe P. but that would be neither technically nor politically correct, and even if it was it would be one of the many roles I inhabit but not who I am.

I can say that I was born in Michigan, grew up there with 2 sisters in a nice quiet neighborhood, went to Michigan State, where I became so active in the movement to end the war in Vietnam that my parents cut me off, so I became self-sufficient at an early age. I was married, had 3 children, more jobs and businesses than I can even remember, more marriages than I like to admit, and am now living happily ever after with Joe. Well, that may be an interesting story but it is a series of events. It's not who I am.

I may say that I have felt pain, love, grief, joy, anger, and a good dollop of shame. All these emotions help define me as a human like you, but they are still not who I am.

Let me show you something. Right now, I would like you to point to yourself. Do you realize that you are pointing to your heart, not your head? We know without thinking about it that the constant narrative in our mind of what we should do, what we have done, what we are feeling, how we should act in order to not feel that way anymore ... That continuous mind chatter is not who we are. When we point to our “Self” we generally point to our heart center, the seat of love, passion, and compassion. The heart is more closely connected to our “Self” than the mind.

Just as the radio is not the music, the mind is not the soul.  C.S. Lewis wrote, “You don't have a soul. You are a Soul. You have a body.” If what “I Am” is a soul, I don't need to look outside of my Self for spirit. I need to be aware that spirit is already in me and has been all along.

Jim Carrey said, “Like many of you, I was concerned about going out into the world and doing something bigger than myself, until someone smarter than myself made me realize that there is nothing bigger than myself. My soul is not contained within the limits of my body, my body is contained within the limitlessness of my soul.”

So to you I say, "Namaste. My soul honors your soul. I honor the place in you where the entire universe resides. I honor the light, love, truth, beauty and peace within you, because it is also within me. In sharing these things we are united, we are the same, we are one." And I mean it from the center of my universe.