Where Soul Meets Body

The weather is cool, it’s dark, driving under street lights, the radio is on.
​The band Death Cab For Cutie chimes in, my heart takes an unexpected leap; a song I’d heard a million times before, yet this time, in a new way. I suppose I’ve changed, and that’s what made me hear it differently.
Once upon a time these words were just something that seemed to exist inside of a cloud. They offered a pretty image, a light feeling not quite understood, something entirely untouchable. I’d accepted this without even realizing it and moved on humming a melody. Never would I think that one day these words would mean something so different.
“I want to live where soul meets body”
The resounding answer, “you do” was loud and clear.
The surge of contentment that followed was palpable.
“You do. You do. You do.”
Right there, right within your skin is that exact place. Somewhere that an energy, a light, that is entirely you resides. The you beyond your roles, your regulations, your story, the you that is simple, the you that is just love. Death Cab’s lead singer Benjamin Gibbard calls it the Soul, I agree, and feel free to replace that with whatever word or image works for you. Your Soul, your body, enmeshed together to create all that you are, right now. I realize it all sounds a whole lot like a fairy tale, but well, we are pretty magical.
How often do you look to the world around you and think, “I wish I could be that”, “I wish I could have that”, “I’d be happy if only I were [insert your thoughts here]”?
Many, I’m guessing. I’ll let you in on a secret, I spent the greater part of my life thinking all those things, too. Then somewhere along the lines, I managed to begin meeting myself, right where I was. I started leaning in and allowing myself to be, to be imperfect, to have a shitty job, to feel ugly, to have been victimized, to have made more than my fill of mistakes, to be broken and fearful, to feel utterly alone. I finally let myself look down at my hands and see all the broken pieces of myself I carried. And I didn’t look away, I just let that be. You know what? I found myself there. Where soul meets body. There’s something so deeply remarkable about finding that place. It’s where hope lives, it’s where humility lives. You realize in that place, no matter how “broken” you might be, so long as you are here, you are always mendable.
Hope initiates action, and action initiates change; humility initiates forgiveness, and forgiveness initiates freedom.
“I want to live where soul meets body”, Benjamin Gibbard goes on, “and let the sun wrap it’s arms around me”. My answer to that is,
“so do it”
Go outside while the sun is shining, stand there. Lift your chin to the clouds and breathe…and stand there.
Meet yourself there, where soul meets body, and be.