The Signature of the Soul

A brief hour or so before dinner-time to blog. I've had a relaxing weekend, having cleared some of my life-maintenance errands and now ready to start another busy week. 

I've been holed up at home mostly during the work-days, not even stepping foot out of the house for meals. This is like those early days of the lockdown but I'm already used to it.  I'm grateful that I'm still able to use my time productively to generate some income.

The only way to understand yourself better is to expose yourself to difficult challenges. When you are faced with difficulties, you begin to see your strengths and weaknesses very clearly. Your weaknesses are the things that prevent you from achieving the things you plan. Identifying them is part of the payoff of any challenge.

Life throws you a lot of curve balls. You handle them with as much courage, stoicism and dignity as you could muster. In my last blog post, I alluded to the equivalent of the eye of the storm within you--a center of calm where we can find your inner self.

There's a part of you that is your 'nature'--something you can't really change. It is as if you were born to depend on its strength and suffer its many defects and accesses. It is the soul's signature.

When you meet old friends, you'll always notice how little people's basic characters change. The outward appearances and their social image would have undergone changes but deep within everyone's character remain as it were decades ago. The soul's nature often requires a lifetime to find its expression and resolution. 

You will only change your nature when you face existential threats. Only the ultimate pain can trigger a deep shift in the soul, because you have no options left. It is either extinction or change. The ability to change is the secret weapon you unleash. 

All change is initially painful because they expose your vulnerabilities. Suddenly you have to depend on the ingenuity of your brains and muscles to tackle the situation and not some standard cookbook formula from memory.

When change occurs, the soul's signature shifts into a new configuration. It is like a realignment of the planets. The new configuration will reveal new strengths and weaknesses, which require another cataclysmic event to trigger a change.

So be prepared when change occurs. The pandemic is a change. How have you adapted. Has your soul's signature shifted?