Seek your Soul

SECCA Gardens – Sculpture by Mark Jenkins – photo Rita Bourland

While visiting one of our sons in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, we spent an afternoon at SECCA (Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art).  The center is surrounded by lush greenery with sculptures appearing in unexpected places.  I found this one to be particularly intriguing.

Seek your Soul

What is it that makes up a human soul?  We have the same organs, veins, bones, muscles – organic matter like the fabric of the earth.  What seeds buried deep inside give birth to humanity, making us singular, unique, capable of hope, despair, love, hate and spirituality? 

The very core of our being is rooted to the earth.  Gravity pulls us down each day, reminding us that we are of the earth, at least while we are in our human form.  We go about our days giving birth to ideas that emerge from our complex brains.  Seeds germinate and ideas grow into actions.  Actions impact others; sometimes for the betterment of mankind, sometimes not.  The mind of each person is capable of creating a garden of beauty or a desolate, hopeless landscape.  We have the power to take the seeds, nurture them with love and sunlight and then unleash them in a flourish of fanciful flight, knowing they will float freely on a gentle, giving wind.

We have that power.  

The human soul is separate from the organic matter that tethers us to earth.  It lives temporarily within the shell of our human bodies, but it must be tended with great care.  Its purpose is greater than our imperfect human form, than our unsettled human hearts.  

Sit on the earth, feel the deep connection; allow your thoughts to delve deeply into the very core of your being.  Somewhere, in a world where time and space are absent, our souls exist.  Seek your soul and there you will find the truth and there your garden will grow.