Growing Soul

Listening to yet another discussion on the effects of Covid the other day I was impressed by one woman with a teenage son who had called in to complain that there were so few outlets for a teenager with anxiety and depression issues to get the help they needed. I wondered, listening to her what exactly she’d been doing all along to nurture his healthy inner development – or had she even been paying attention to what direction his life had been going.

My dream teacher, toward the end of her life had a dream where she was told that people needed to know many things, but the most important was that the soul be allowed to grow. In other words the soul is already on that track – that specific direction. But the real work is to encourage that direction and allow it to develop. So my question to the complaining mother would be: How was she encouraging his soul growth, how was she assisting his development? OR had she left that task to the schools, the society, to the entertainment industry, and to public opinion?

If this was a typical teenager I daresay he’d already logged in many hours of killing and mayhem time. Few hours on helping others or volunteer work, or assisting others in some way. Precious few hours on reflection, on deliberately developing certain life skills, and character development – like Ben Franklin. In his Autobiography it’s clear that character development was one of is Ben Franklin’s important priorities growing up. And it shows in his life, of course.- his list of accomplishments is impressive.

Many of our teens haven’t been allowed the privilege of good directions. Time for that soon? Let’s make growing soul a priority.

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