I have come to trust the people who wear tan yoga pants and travel to India to rummage through the Soul Section of the Lost and Found. I think they are on to something when they say (or, sometimes, SING in a very interesting thin voice) that life is an everlasting flow of Energy, Magic and Karma. No ends or beginnings, just flow. Breathe in, breathe out. Really, DO IT. Breathe IN. Hold it. Breath OUT. If you are very still, you can feel the tingle of the flow.
(Wait a minute, these are not song lyrics from one of their songs, are they?)
Anyway.
Energy is the force that sparks life into things by fussing around and arranging atoms in new interesting formations, Magic, the necessary secret ingredient that makes everything enchanting, and Karma the collective memory ensuring that the system learns from its endeavours. Nothing much is wasted in this flow (if you don’t count Kouvola, which is a complete waste of good space, and moped cars which are a total waste or roads AND parking spaces).
The thing is, for the flow to be possible, everything needs to be charged every once in a while. Trees probably don’t need to be charged all that often, since all they do is take stands. Bees and humming birds probably have some cellular chargers for transforming their buzzing and humming to energy. Oceans have wave power for one, plus the moon helps them out. So they are all set.
But what about you and I?
We already know what powers the body (mine works best with crustaceans and wine, but six-year-olds could break the earth’s gravity field if given enough chicken nuggets and coke).
But … what charges our souls? What keeps our minds spinning, whirling, backtracking, ticking, giggling and daydreaming?
Hold that thought and bear with me (not *bare*, mind you … although if you are all by yourself at your summer cottage right now -> go ahead)
My sister did some accidental research into the issue of recharging one’s soul while looking into the whole introvert / extrovert thing. She told me that most people think the division into intro vs extro has something to do with: social skills, shyness and whether you freeze up if suddenly handed the microphone (Me, I cannot resist microphones. Love’em).
But NO! This is not he the case, she says. The whole intro-extro division has to do with how you CHARGE YOUR SOUL. I suspect this is just the tip of the pyramid. I think there there must be more categories. Like, A LOT MORE. But this is s a good start, so let’s play along.
So, introverts get more energy from spending time with their inner self. They require solitude and timeless zones in which to dive into books, to board strange trains of thoughts, to gaze into dimensions beyond. Sometimes they to turn their inner garden path sentences to words or to watercolor paintings with a lot of cotton candy pink. They can be very talented show (off) people, regular babble fountains at cocktail parties, fabulously funny when given fizzy drinks, but the fact is, being social DRAINS their energy, no matter how much FUN it might be. And the the flow of energy must be restored by say … a couple of hours on a deserted beach somewhere in the Pacific or by a lonely road trip home with the rain drumming on the windshield and nothing but Depeche Mode in the CD player.
Extrovert people glow and sparkle and thrum with energy when they are surrounded by friends and family, when they can engage in stimulating conversations, when their calendars are full of scribbled notes about dates and get-togethers and parties. They are like radiant suns in the solar systems of the social kind. People gather around them and bask in their warmth and go home wondering how some people can light up any room like christmas lights! I wonder, if without such people, there would ever be ANY parties in the world. Well, I guess birthday parties would still be mandatory 🙂
So, Extrovert people charge their souls when they mingle, while Introverts can’t hear what I’m saying because they are out charging their soul in a book.
However, I think this division is much too crude. I’m sure there are even MORE VERTS. At the very least, there should be something like a PARVERT (sounds bad, I know, but at least it is LATIN!). PAR meaning “a pair”. So, people who charge their SOULS with a carefully picked soulmate. Someone who completes the flow of energy with their presence. Also, a subcategory for introverts could be a ARSVERT (again, apologies), someone who charges his soul by CREATING something, like art (LATIN: ARS). A subcategory for extroverts (or many introverts … hmm) could be ACTOVERT, someone who’s soul aches to be on stage, to perform, to act, to entertain. And then there are those who eat cake. I can see that my well of ideas is getting a bit dry, so maybe this would be a good place to go grab a drink! Luckily there is some cider in the fridge.
The Soul Section of the Lost and Found is FULL OF PEOPLE LOOKING FOR THEMSELVES. For some reason, many seem to think that India is a good place to start, although I can’t fathom why. It seems to me be a bit disorganized, in terms of people.
I think, but this is just me, maybe all the soul seekers have not misplaced their souls after all. They have just forgotten how to RECHARGE. After all, if your energy is all but depleted, you probably feel a bit off in the soul department. But before you can recharge, you have to figure out which kind of VERT you are.
Take me, for example, I have always thought of myself as an extrovert. No question. For years and years and years. But as turns out, I have been wrong all along! I am in fact an INTROVERT, who NEEDS to be home alone and breathe in the white silence every now and then (or watch Dwayne Johnson movies).
Way before I realized this, I think I was faintly aware that something was amiss. For instance, I was trying to take time to myself while, say, brushing my teeth. I would bring a book and walk around the bathroom for a VERY LONG TIME. Or take baths that would ensure that my carbon footprint could be seen all the way from SPACE. Also, I would really really really miss having my big slow cup of tea without some short-but-cute-folk trying to extract me from the table. So, I kind of knew what I needed. Space in which to travel to an inner dimension in which I can wear woollen socks and have midnight discussions with Professor Rincewind.
This weekend, I am lucky. The Guy is off to do manly things in the woods with other Chucks. The kids are off on a holiday trip. If only I could persuade the seagulls who life above me to move their noisy flyfest somewhere else, everything would be perfect!
So, Energy, Magic and Karma. If you find a way to replenish your energy, and embrace the magic in the world, I think your Karma will be just fine and there will be no need to travel all the way to India. I guess the key is to keep your soul’s battery in the green zone … and drink lots of fluids. Perhaps just a slice of the that cake would not hurt, either 🙂
As the Crow Flies 