Unshackle Thy Soul

“Laughter…

Like rays of sunshine

bursting through clouds

on a face now telling a story of hope…

Like the blooming of roses

in a garden unkempt

and full of thorns after the rain…

Like the singing of birds

after the murmur of the lightning and thunder

preceding the pain…

Expresses the release

that comes with relief…

Unshackles the soul.”

– R.A.G.

Like rays of sunshine…
Spring is the season of awakening. The state of frigid dormancy all around us dissolves, and is replaced by a refreshingly exhilarating sense of being. The new season induces a breathgiving/breathtaking yawn, followed by a fatigue-eliminating stretch of our physicality that are precursors to the imminent rejuvenation of our bodies, our minds, and our spirits.

The enlivenment of Spring prods us to rid ourselves of the bulky coats of a season of frigidity and somnolence. Bid goodbye to the unsympathetic bite of frosty days and nights that is characteristic of Winter. Welcome the wonderful stimulation of a new season of sunshine and showers. The partnership of these two life-giving agents potentiates our growth and our longing for new experiences of joy and fulfillment.

Wonderful… as in full of wonder… is an apt description of the awakening that can happen in and around us. Something or someone that seemed not just dormant, but lifeless to some, rises again from the depths of apparent existential despondency and ascends to the haven of an invigorating newness of life.

It is a glorious thing that we, like the proverbial Phoenix, can shake off the residues of the various sources of grief and failures of our existence and rise to new heights of being and achievement. Some of us feel trapped in the quicksand of sorrowfulness and an abiding sense of inadequacy.

There are those who are in relationships that are oppressively unprogressive, who only know a life of uncreative drudgery. Some of us are in places that we desperately need to leave so that we can find ourselves again and realize those ambitions that give energy to the kind of person that we long to be.

We long to have the opportunities to cultivate the truths that transcend the facts of our lives. There is a yearning to break free of the uninspiring definitions of our lives – those that are self-imposed and those that others have implied in their interactions with us. To all who would take an active role in the process of their own resurgence… embrace your newfound passion for life and live into the very essence of this new season.

Like the blooming of roses…

Know yourself as a resurrected being. Become one with the examples of resurgence that you are witnessing in the flora and fauna all around you. Go to a place where you can breathe in and absorb the rejuvenation that the lilies of the fields and the roses in our gardens are witnesses to. Find a good book and fall asleep reading it. Discover and enjoy different kinds of music. Learn to dance. Pay attention to someone inspiring. Take a vacation. Go somewhere you have never gone. Fall in love. Fall in love again.

Let us free ourselves from the depression-inducing influences around us. All of them. Be they persons or things, family, or acquaintances. Develop new interests and find new ways to express your talents and abilities. Reach out and encourage someone who needs empowering. Keep in mind that the good we do returns to us a thousand folds. The seeds of compassion that we sow will contribute to the harvest of a more fulfilling life.

In a hypercritical society it is easy to pass judgment on things and people we do not fully understand. It is convenient in this respect to write off the lives and efforts of others in the perpetual projection of our own shortcomings and our insecurities. However, we learn in this season of awakening that where there is life there is hope; and conversely, where there is hope, there are myriad possibilities for a new and more abundant life. That which is dormant is just that… dormant… not dead.

Like the singing of birds…

And so as we come into a new season, let us recognize and celebrate the many possibilities for our lives. Let us embrace the new and oh-so-many opportunities for our resurrection and resurgence. This is the season to leave behind the limitations, inherent or superimposed, that prevent us from being all that we can be. Let us open ourselves to the abundance that can come with an all-pervasive insemination of hopefulness and love. Open the windows that have been closed to keep out the cold. Hear the birds sing… again.

Embrace the new season with all the joy your heart can call into being! Let us let go of the sullenness of a season of frigidity and the sense of sorrowfulness that is its agent.

Come to know the exhilarating abundance of that new season in which laughter replaces the hollowness of that pervasive numbness that you have suffered for so long in body, mind, and spirit. Yawn… and stretch… and breathe in the life-enriching breeze of a new season of growth.

It’s Spring again…. Let the joy of being alive envelop your whole being again. Unshackle thy soul….