Cube-Shaped Heart

 I wrote about the soul in other posts but I was inspired by a mental picture of something that I felt needed to be put to print. The soul is this invisible and almost imaginary "thing" that as I mentioned previously, isn't really as talked about as Jesus or God or other typical conversations we find in church environments. That's not to knock on churches but we all should share when we can. Anyone can inspire.

I'll jump right in. Imagine a cube, a box of sorts that is invisible but somehow perturbs your vision of what is on the other side of it. Maybe it reflects light and maybe it refracts it but it shimmers with both as if anxious for something... and that too is a part of this story. You can't touch it or sense it in any other way than just with your vision. Now, this cube represents our soul and that is where this perspective starts on what is a soul.

A child is born and when it arrives, it has a soul. We all have one but nobody spends much time discussing it. Every time a Mom or Dad or any loved one, for that matter, hugs, kisses and shares affection with that infant, a small almost imperceptible glow appears on the outside of the cube. While we know it's there by its glowing appearance as it shows up on the side of the cube, it's just a physical representation of... love. 

Remember, this is just an imaginary representation of MY impression of what a soul might "look" like if we tried to describe it. You're just reading my attempt to put something ethereal in the real.

Ok, so as the child grows, if it experiences love, those exterior glowing "dots" grow brighter or may even appear to spread, showing, once again, that love envelopes the soul of this child. Grandparents, parents, siblings, etc. all contribute to that and yes, negative experiences take away from that glowing presence. Painfully, some will grow up with little if any love and that too is reflected on the soul. The soul yearns for it but never receives it. 

Now that young soul grows up a bit and now at the young age of 3, another baby arrives. Brother, sister, it doesn't matter, but it too has a soul and quite often in the early days, this infant is having a rough time. They are tired, cranky, hungry or need something else but they are crying, none-the-less. The sibling who we talked about previously sees the baby needs something so it asks the mother or father if it's OK to check its daiper and the parent, likely exhausted from raising two young children, agrees. The young child checks the diaper and doesn't find any reason to change it and thinks, "maybe this baby just needs to be held and comforted" and climbs into their crib and cuddles the infant. They cradle their young sibling, slowly caressing them, speaking softly that "everything is ok" and slowly, ever-so-slowly, the infant's cries grow fewer and fewer and quieter, too and eventually falls asleep. The older sibling sits there continuing to cradle them, occasionally patting them if they stir but for sure, this infant has found peace and comfort. What the older sibling finds is that their soul has a similar glowing light but not attached to the outside of the cube but from within. It's now a bright light but a glow that seems tiny but yet can be seen. In the infant's soul, a tiny glow appears on the outside of the cube. Love from within the soul of the older sibling is applied to the soul of the infant.

I had mentioned previously that the soul-representing cube appears "anxious" and shimmers with a sort of desire for something. That is the soul's desire for love, affirmation, friendship and more.The soul is satisfied with the love it receives from the older sibling and the older sibling's soul, as mentioned, has gained something internal to the cube. Love, empathy, caring and more.

As the two souls of these children grow, they will experience various levels and measure of a whole spectrum of emotions. Those that are positive are reflected on the exterior of the cube and those that generate from each child, if positive, will grow from within the cube. Negative emotions, feelings, experiences and such only take away from certain aspects of the external. 

It's the painful reality that if a child doesn't receive love, it leads to negative impacts on their future. For their soul, they simply lack those positively charged emotions that attach to the exterior of their soul. Souls don't gain negative aspects, only positive. While negative experiences may take away the external glowing spots, they don't paint anything negative onto the soul. Again, this is just one man's dreamed up vision of what a soul looks like as it progresses through one's life. A lack of love can greatly affect a person and lead them to do things that are not good for their own soul or those of those they encounter.

Maybe you've heard of Abraham Maslow, whose ideas led to the idea that there are tiers of needs within each of us. You most often see that as a pyramid or triangle that looks like this:

It's not known who or where the triangle shape evolved but Maslow didn't create it at least in any of his works. Although the origin is unknown it does work well to describe the various levels of needs within the human psyche. What is most notable is that basic human needs are at the bottom. The things that our soul needs follow in greater quantities as you go up the order. Maybe the top part is more of a benefit to satisfying the needs below it but either way, I think you can see that one's own needs are often not physical but tied to something within... your soul. When we reach out to help others, we create those glowing dots on the inside of our soul. To the recipient of our efforts, their souls enjoy the externally-applied glowing dots of love, affirmation, etc.

Sure, it's a weird concept but describing things we can't see but can visualize is the goal, here. Filling our own soul cube with as many positive, loving emotions that we hand out to others is our purpose in this life. Jesus said, "Love one another" and those words, as many know, have a nearly limitless list of ways to express them. Each life gives you opportunities to engage in those acts and overcoming our own selfish desires is key to making more room in our souls for more positive experiences.

If we act upon the idea that we are trying to do good for others, as a means to fill our souls with the glowing dots of loving one another a lifetime of ways, is our purpose on this Earth.

I hope you gain something peaceful from this. Life is just more simple when we see it this way and act accordingly. Jesus came not to perform miracles, although those certainly garnered him the attention he was looking for but to add greater meaning to what religious leaders were teaching. Good works are good but if we frame them in the reference of soul-building, then the understanding of it makes far more sense. Jesus came to us as the ultimately evangelist who gave great examples with his parables of how we show limitless love and that, I firmly believe, is what fills our souls with what God intended. Peace isn't silence in a storm but satisfaction within our souls and I offer this strange but purposeful effort to help others understand, at least from my perspective, what is a soul.