What's a Soul?

"Mommy, what's a soul?

Seth asks me this as I'm flying around the kitchen, getting them fed and ready for school. (You do know you're five, right buddy)?

What an opportunity!

But wait! I'm not ready. I hadn't planned for this question. Not today.

Dropping everything, we sit down on the kitchen floor. This boy with the innocent eyes, the perfectly round cheeks, the big heart.

Doing what I've been taught to do when I'm lost, I send out an invitation.

"Uh, Holy Spirit? Could you step in here please? Give me some words?"

"Well Seth. Your soul is the big part of you. What you see here," I pat his chest, and touch his head, "is just a small part of who you really are. You are a beautiful , important part of something much larger. The bigger Seth is never afraid, always peaceful, always knows what to do."

He smiles, imagining BIG SETH, then hunkers into me.

I tell him a story from A Course in Miracles. It says we are all like waves in a giant ocean thinking we're separate, when really we're part of the whole.

"Your soul is the part of you who knows who you really are."

He sits on my lap, allowing me to stroke his hair. He's wearing new "Cars" sneakers on his feet. I think I'm doing pretty good (yes I know it's supposed to be 'well,' but that ain't how we really talk).

Then he says, "Cause it said, 'Soul' on Let's Get it Started.

"Doh!"

Todd's been letting them watch music videos on You Tube.

I had to play the video twice to even catch the world "soul," yet it's the one word he pulled out.

Go figure, a discussion on spirituality spurred by the Black Eyed Peas.