Contributed by Barbara Taylor
The ordinary arts we practice every day at home are of more importance to the soul than their simplicity might suggest.
—Thomas Moore
If someone stopped me on the street to ask me whether I thought the above statement was true, I would wholeheartedly say yes! But I would soon enough find myself grumbling under my breath in the midst of washing my dog’s accidently soiled bedding, or rushing through the chopping of vegetables for dinner because I had more ‘important’ things to do.
What if each of us deeply believed and lived Moore’s idea from the core of our being?
When it comes to matters pertaining to the soul, we can tend to think of lofty practices that are religious or otherwise need to be observed in a particular place, time, or method. Not so, according to author Moore.
Moore is the first to admit that it’s impossible to define exactly what the soul is. Further, that an attempt to do so is an intellectual exercise that has little to do with the soul’s preferred realm of expression: the imagination. The best we can do, therefore, is name attributes that help to describe it.
Our work is to develop soulfulness in our daily lives
In his 1992 book Care of the Soul, Moore offers a 15th century description by Marsilio Ficino:
“The mind…tends to go off on its own so that it seems to have no relevance to the physical world. At the same time, the materialistic life can be so absorbing that we get caught in it and forget about spirituality. What we need…is soul in the middle, holding together mind and body, ideas and life, spirituality and the world.”
Our work, therefore, is to develop soulfulness in our daily lives.
One thing I love about Moore’s writing is that he is prone to blunt, powerful statements.
For example:
“No one can tell you how to live your life. No one knows the secrets of the heart sufficiently to tell others about them authoritatively.”
For Moore, living soulfully isn’t about curing, fixing, or other popular psychological and spiritual concepts aiming at self-improvement or an ideal existence. Soulful living is instead about meeting life each day while remaining mindful of spirituality.
When I remind myself that the “ordinary arts” I perform each day are important components of my soul work, I find myself making a mental and emotional shift. There is nowhere better or more important to be than here and now, engaging in these “mundane” tasks. It’s a feeling of sweet relief.
