The way we nourish ourselves determines our ability to shine our light in the world. And nourishment doesn’t just come in the form of food and drink and sunshine; it’s equally important to nourish your spirit.
What made your soul feel most nourished this year?
If I said, the sacrament, my parents would probably disown me, and I can’t help feeling it’s a bit of a smart-arse answer, and I am still not quite High enough to be entirely comfortable saying that. And yet it is true.
I have become particularly aware this year of the way my faith has changed over the past few years, the way it has become less about what I believe and more about just being there. And how by ‘just being there’ I mean both the actual physical turning up, and the intense conscious mindfulness that I attain for maybe ten seconds. How it requires less effort and more heart. How it is less defensive and more loving. And a lot of that is about there being something that is real and true even when my brain is not working or my heart feels dead. How, while everything is real, this is the most real thing of all.
Just being there. Sitting with myself. Getting to know myself. Unravelling the snarls and the tangles in my history and my present. Pulling the stones out before digging the manure in. Or something like that. I have explored a lot of The Fluent Self this year, and that’s helped a lot with all this. Being kinder to myself.
(And then of course I will always say: music. Specifically, singing, which helps me get inside things like nothing else. And interesting things have happened there, recently, but I think I’ll save them for the moment.)
Kathleen Jowitt 