Is It Well?

HOW IS IT WITH YOUR SOUL?

How is it with your soul?

I meet regularly with a few friends and we ask one another that
question. How is it with your soul? In other words, at the core of
your being ... what is going on?

It's a bigger question than, "How are you feeling?" It includes body,
mind and spirit -- everything.

How would you answer that question today? How is it with YOUR soul?

Are you caring for it? After all, you care for your body. Do you care
for your soul, too?

Do you FEED your soul?

I'm told that a hummingbird flaps its wings some 50-80 times a
second. It must eat constantly to work that hard. It takes tremendous
energy simply to live.

We, too, must feed our spirits if we intend to be healthy. It may
include prayer or meditation or the practice of other spiritual
disciplines. Or taking classes and reading books that not only teach,
but uplift and inspire.

These are only a few of the ways we feed our souls, but without
constant nourishment, our spirits will grow weak and listless.

Do you REST your soul?

In our multi-tasking lives, sometimes the best thing we can do is to
do nothing at all. Just to sit quietly long enough to let our souls
catch up with our bodies.

Charles Darwin said, "If I had my life to live over again, I would
have made a rule to read some poetry and listen to some music at least
once a week."

What rests your soul? Poetry? Music? Enjoying the beauty of nature?
This is a wonderful world we live in -- a world full of wonder. Can
you find ways to rest your soul?

Do you CHEER your soul?

Use one of the greatest gifts you have been given is a gift of
laughter. And it is a gift we never use enough.

A woman diagnosed with Rheumatoid Arthritis told me how painful the
disease had become. Debra said that no drugs would touch the
devastating pain. "At times I prayed to die because I did not think I
could go on this way," she said.

"In 1996 I began seeing a doctor who gave me the most important
prescription that I ever could have received. He excused himself from
the room. I watched him walking back and forth in the hall; he seemed
to be in deep thought."

The doctor came back in with this prescription. He told Debra to get
some funny movies and to begin laughing. If she didn't feel like
laughing, then she should smile. If she didn't feel like smiling, she
should smile anyway. He said that it would increase the endorphins in
her brain to help with her pain.

She did just as he suggested. She smiled constantly. Her children
teased her about the fake smile, but she told them that it was going
to get rid of her pain.

And it did. Of course, not all of her pain is gone, but her newly
acquired habit of laughing and smiling has made it manageable. And now
Debra says that she takes only a fraction of the pills she used to
consume, and that she would feel abnormal without a smile.

Someone beautifully said, "Life is not about waiting for the storm to
pass -- it's about learning how to dance in the rain."

How is it with your soul? That may be the best question you can ever
ask yourself.

-- Steve Goodier