Soul Food
Someone recently said these words to me: "You know how you can just TELL when your soul is fed?"
Isn't that a fantastic way to put it? When your soul is fed? So I thought about it, and I think I can tell. But I'm not sure that I had ever given it much thought until she very nonchalantly said those words.
There are times when I am just feeling so good about something and I can't really put my finger on the emotion. Maybe it's after a lazy Sunday afternoon, just hanging around with my family watching football in the family room. Maybe it's following a Sunday morning when I've sung in the choir and I really loved the song. (If there was a tambourine involved, even better!) Time at home with my husband, not traveling, not rushed. Maybe I took a walk with my best friends and we laughed and talked and exercised all at the same time. Maybe I carved out some time in the day to be really alone with my thoughts. Reading a great book in the big chair. Playing Guitar Hero with my kids. A good, healthy meal eaten around the table with real conversation. A baseball game on a fall evening. Ending my night with prayer, to be in conversation with God.
Soul food. All of it.
But, darn it, there's the opposite of soul food. And I don't know what it would be called . . . soul junk? The stuff that saps the energy from my spirit, the things that take away from the best part of me and suck the life out of what could be a great day. Negative self-talk. Getting too upset by little things. Worrying about things before they happen. Not giving these worries or fears to God. Tiny dramas. (Oh, the drama. . . now THIS is another blog for another time . . . because I can create a screen-worthy drama out of nothing at all.) Junk food. (Yes, I find that junk food clutters up a good day, but sometimes a girl needs a french-fry.) Careless words tossed around thoughtlessly. Mindless errands. Google. (Oh, I LOVE Google for it's real and true purpose, but when I start Googling "Jon & Kate + 8" to see the scoop behind the reality show, that's a problem.) Television, computers, magazines . . . all things I adore and will not entirely abandon, but they do suck the time away from me like a vacuum if I'm not careful. And could there have been a better use for that time?
Listen, I am the FIRST person to say that a few minutes with People magazine and a Hershey Bar has always been good for my soul. And as far as that little nugget of peace goes, if it's not broken, I'm not going to fix it!
But a little balance never hurt anyone.
So, I am going to consciously try to feed my soul a little better. And on this soul food diet, I don't have to give things up; instead, I get to add in heaps and heaps of the things I love the most.
Isn't that a fantastic way to put it? When your soul is fed? So I thought about it, and I think I can tell. But I'm not sure that I had ever given it much thought until she very nonchalantly said those words.
There are times when I am just feeling so good about something and I can't really put my finger on the emotion. Maybe it's after a lazy Sunday afternoon, just hanging around with my family watching football in the family room. Maybe it's following a Sunday morning when I've sung in the choir and I really loved the song. (If there was a tambourine involved, even better!) Time at home with my husband, not traveling, not rushed. Maybe I took a walk with my best friends and we laughed and talked and exercised all at the same time. Maybe I carved out some time in the day to be really alone with my thoughts. Reading a great book in the big chair. Playing Guitar Hero with my kids. A good, healthy meal eaten around the table with real conversation. A baseball game on a fall evening. Ending my night with prayer, to be in conversation with God.
Soul food. All of it.
But, darn it, there's the opposite of soul food. And I don't know what it would be called . . . soul junk? The stuff that saps the energy from my spirit, the things that take away from the best part of me and suck the life out of what could be a great day. Negative self-talk. Getting too upset by little things. Worrying about things before they happen. Not giving these worries or fears to God. Tiny dramas. (Oh, the drama. . . now THIS is another blog for another time . . . because I can create a screen-worthy drama out of nothing at all.) Junk food. (Yes, I find that junk food clutters up a good day, but sometimes a girl needs a french-fry.) Careless words tossed around thoughtlessly. Mindless errands. Google. (Oh, I LOVE Google for it's real and true purpose, but when I start Googling "Jon & Kate + 8" to see the scoop behind the reality show, that's a problem.) Television, computers, magazines . . . all things I adore and will not entirely abandon, but they do suck the time away from me like a vacuum if I'm not careful. And could there have been a better use for that time?
Listen, I am the FIRST person to say that a few minutes with People magazine and a Hershey Bar has always been good for my soul. And as far as that little nugget of peace goes, if it's not broken, I'm not going to fix it!
But a little balance never hurt anyone.
So, I am going to consciously try to feed my soul a little better. And on this soul food diet, I don't have to give things up; instead, I get to add in heaps and heaps of the things I love the most.
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