The Spans of the Soul

*Dana Point, California.  Sunset from San Clemente.  July, 2010.

The sun is setting on another day and I am left to reflect upon what is, what has been, and what will be.  I know that there are many who say that we should live in the moment, live for now, live for today, but what is the moment without the past and present to weigh it against?  Everything melds together like one huge map containing intricate lines and representations of here, there and everywhere.  Yet there is no singular direction, no exact route which leads us towards a life best-lived.  We zig, we zag, we move ahead and then backwards.  We love, we fight, we lose, we win, we laugh, we cry, we scream, we whisper.  So many contradictions, yet without them, we would never transcend or triumph.  We must consider what has been in order to clearly understand what is.  For this moment, without the larger context of all the other moments of our lives, would be almost meaningless.

I sit here in the loving presence of my beloved husband of almost twenty-six years.  I look over at him and our sweet cat, Callie, is curled up in the comfort of his lap, book open to a page that he is reading.  In the background, the television is on silent displaying a baseball game.  The Angels are playing the Texas Rangers(How did I know that?), score 5 to 1.(GO ANGELS!)  Our dogs are busy chewing their Dingo rawhides on the floor beside our bed.  And the ocean rolls with the voices of a million stories.  Stories of today, of yesterday, of tomorrow.  None without the other, without the other, without the other...

*Pelican over the Pacific.

The soul seems to seamlessly fly from one moment to the next, absorbing, discarding, reaching for new heights.  How effortlessly it accepts life as one minute building onto the next, onto the next, all the while evolving into who we will someday become.  Knowing that some moments are exceedingly more important than others yet all are points on the journey.  Yet we don't often realize that a moment is somehow crucial in our development until later on.  Until introspection and reflection.  Until the moment passes and weaves its way into all of the other moments upon moments upon moments.

*Agapantha at sunset.

You are here.  In this moment, at this time, on this day, in this place.  Your soul resonates with all that you have endured and all that you have accomplished.  The moments are points on the map of your life, each one leading from where you have been to where you are to where you will soon be.  All important in the scheme of life, yet without one another, somehow trivial and contrite.

The sun has completely retreated into the horizon leaving behind a dark purplish-pink hue to the sky.  Another day past, another one to come.(God willing.)  The Angels are now beating the Texas Rangers, 6-2.  Tomorrow will bring with it new challenges, new reflections, new points in time.  The soul spans it all.

You are here.  You were there.  You will be someplace else.  The soul does span it all.