Before settling down to watch the first video in the summit, ‘Jungian Psychology for a Soulful Life’ with a good friend this morning, we had a catch up. For some time, I’ve been contemplating my past, an ongoing circumambulation of my life; looking back, feeling and sensing into all that I’ve experienced, as a part of moving forward.
Life has accelerated the process. My husband borrowed a 35mm slide converter from a friend to convert my photographic slides into digital images. I set about digitalising over 1200 slides, three at a time. There were slides of paintings that evoked recollections of thoughts and books from different time periods, there were paintings I’d forgotten about, seeing them as if for the first time, then there were the people; some who had left my life, some who had left the country and some who had passed away. I sent some photos to a friend, who in turn sent me some pictures, love and sorrow activated.
Meanwhile, a reunion is happening next month with school friends. I haven’t seen most of them in almost fifty years. The messages have fired back and forth as we prepare for it, reminding us of our teenage selves. The same person who made me laugh - and get into trouble at school - is still able to reduce me to weeping with laughter.
Having talked about some of this, my friend and I listened to the first talk of the summit; ‘Care of the Soul’ by Thomas Moore, who began by saying that memories bring Soul. This synchronicity underlined its importance to me. He spoke of learning to live with our difficulties and heartaches, which bring us into Soul, rather than seeing them as something to learn from, simply returning to our minds.
As we listened to him, we absorbed more than his words; his Soul presence was palpable. The presence of someone who is ‘in Tao’ has an effect on their environment, as told in the story of the Chinese Rainmaker, and Thomas Moore’s presence affected me. And so it was that after listening to ‘Care of the Soul’, and having said goodbye to my friend, I was aligned differently. I looked at the task of the day - writing this blog. I had been attempting to write it for a week. And I went for a walk.
As I walked in the rain, through the woodland areas of Pollok Park, I realised I needed to drop my earlier ideas for a blog post. They felt arid, even though they ticked some of the boxes on my ‘how-to-build-a-business’ list. Jungian Coaching happens in a shared space that’s open to the Soul, open to sorrow, and opens a door to becoming re-enchanted with life. But why wait till my next client arrives? Memories have been re-awakened, lost friends remembered, and along with the sadness has come a sense of re-enchantment. At the time when those photos were taken, enchantment carried hopes and dreams of achieving something extraordinary. Now enchantment lies in the revelation that the ordinary is vibrantly extraordinary.