SCOOP OUT A VESSEL TO MOLD YOUR SOUL

I came across this sentence sculptured by Thomas Moore: "The vessel in which soul-making takes place is an inner container scooped out by reflection and wonder."

I use the word, sculptured, because the sentence is so finely chipped and chiseled, filed and polished. It takes time, thought, and careful choosing of words for that collection of them to be put together--a collection that will call up a mental image, spur self-examination, and offer the possibility that a soul could be made more lovely and acceptable by certain intangible tools (reflection and wonder) rather than to just let it grow, hit or miss.

The author is not the Thomas Moore of our English Literature days who was also facile with words. To wit: "Believe Me Of All Those Endearing Young Charms," "The Last Rose Of Summer," etc. Thomas Moore of the above lovely sentence is extant, living in New England and has a string of alphabetical degrees after his name if he chooses to use them.

Since he is concerned with matters of the soul, I'm sure his only concern with the degrees is that they were only stepping stones to some height where he got a grand overview of life.

The soul! That unseen substance that co-exists with the body! Is it hard for you to "see" it? Can we build something intangible with intangibles? If the soul is thought, action and emotions as the dictionary defines, then I can "see" how it can be "built" into something lovely by working to enhance good thoughts, good actions, good emotions. If the soul is further defined as our spiritual relation to God, then it follows that if we build a lovelier soul, our relation to God will be stronger. Abstract reasoning? Maybe. Abstract reasoning, i.e., dealing with unseen things is hard. That's why I like the way the current Thomas Moore has pictured an inner place you can scoop out with reflection and wonder to make a vessel in which to mold your soul. Still abstract. But more visible to the mind's eye.

And what do you mix in this vessel to make a lovelier soul and thus a stronger spiritual relationship with God. Each in his own way, of course, but Moore suggests mindfulness of the most minute details and ordinary activities. Don't be always looking for something "important."

I walked in the park yesterday and saw the brave little windflowers trembling in the breeze. Playing children were running over them. There were so many of the flowers, I considered it a carpet laid down especially for the children to play on. One little girl stooped over to pick one of the tiny flowers. She looked at it for a long time. I saw her trace a small finger over a petal as if visually discovering for the first time the small lavender markings on the petals. I think she touched the pistil and stamens to see if they were movable or rigid. Scooping out a vessel for her soul making, I thought, and looked long.

Soul food! You've heard that, haven't you? Collards, cornbread, cracklin's. It is not for taste, they're called that, although the taste is good. It is the utter simplicity, especially the studied simplicity. So easy to grow are the collards, turnips, mustard greens. Hold a big leaf of mustard in your hand and admire the construction before casting it into the cooking pot. The beautiful ruffled fringe around the edge, if straightened would go around the leaf about five times. Look at the iron pot you might cook it in. See, it is seamless, conceived in the mind and molded by someone who saw the simplicity of it, the sturdiness, the generation to generation of it. Moore says of the soul "the past is alive and valuable, and so is the future."

I wash my mustard greens, admire them, put them into the black, iron pot that came from the Blue Ridge over a hundred years ago. I hope it will be passed along for another hundred years or more.

There is an element in this pot hard to name but it touches on vitality and the deep pleasures of ordinary life if you pause a few moments to contemplate. Such simplicity and contemplation is essential for the nourishment of the soul.

REJOICE!