[2 minute read]
Who/what are we? Where did we come from, and how? What is our ancestry and origin? And what is our trajectory – our “why”? How have we survived as fit? What are our defenses? On what strengths are we built?
Remember learning in biology class about endoskeletons (like ours) and exoskeletons (like insects, lobsters, snails)? Our vulnerable tender flesh lies exposed, so we survive by moving away from environmental threats, and toward nourishment, minimizing competition.
Our psyche, mind, hearts, and spirits reflect this evolutionary pattern, don’t they?
Evolution has not fashioned us as sedentary animals with a hard outer shell like oysters (though our pearl, too, lies within). We have evolved by survival as highly mobile (animated) animals.
Our structural form and support comes from the inside, and is moved by contractions that pull on our support system from outside it.
Our firm foundation and strength are inside of us. Sages throughout ages have called it the soul.
Unlike the protective outer shell of cockroaches, our protection and strength come from the inside.
Sedentary clams rely on currents of the ocean to nourish them. Currents outside them dictate their fate. Our origins lie in ancestors that evolved out of the ocean, taking a piece of the ocean in their insides. That ocean moves around inside of us, and the current is supplied by the beating of our heart. That is how we are energized and nourished. That is our fate.
When the heart stops beating, our embodyment is dead. The ocean currents inside of us are no longer animated (“anima” is Latin for “soul”).
When alive, and our ocean container is pierced, we bleed because of our beating hearts, and others see the piece of our inner ocean pour out from inside us, exposing our vulnerable and tender basis for being. And so it is when we authentically love.
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Neil D. 2021-12-10
Related: We harden our shells… Like turtles, not cockroaches
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