One of the chief delights of the soul is to ruminate.  – Thomas Moore

No matter what else we do in life, fundamentally we are on a soul journey. What has always been true inside is continually coming into clearer focus no matter the external swings of relationships, kids, jobs, and everything else we are entangled in. All of these external activities shape our spirit, just as our spirit shapes the things we choose to do. The deeper layers of our self that want expression can’t be tied up nicely or tallied, totaled, allotted and accounted for, this linear thinking will never be enough to answer these underlying questions. The only way to make sense of what is asked of us is to look longer, to ponder, and to ruminate.

Ruminating is the kind of non-linear thinking that creates new ideas, connections, and understanding. We don’t live our lives in a straight line, or come to greater wisdom through lists and spreadsheets. We get there through letting the unknown energy course through us in unfamiliar ways then see how it all fits together. Ruminating puts us in direct contact with a slower pace that we’ve lost touch with in our hectic culture.

This languid reverie is the souls’ way of soothing deeper needs we all have, of living within the mystery without having to solve it. It’s the call to live more consciously. How aware can we become of the mystery that surrounds us? How comfortable can we get with what remains in the shadowy depths of the unknown? Learning to navigate this uncharted territory in a new way requires the suspension of logic. It requires surrender.

That’s why we ruminate, to let our mind wander in unquantifiable ways and see what springs from the mystery that will forever go on remaining a mystery. No text books, no diagrams, just free floating waves of ideas. A circuitous path to an unknown origin. What we bring up from the depths is the treasure we build our lives upon.

This in not a specific destination, there is no road map, there’s not even a road. There is just delight in musing about all we don’t know, and this delight brings with it freedom. The freedom of being instead of the preoccupation of doing.

So stop doing so much all the time and let your soul take a deep breath.

kb