About one year ago I came across a story by Neale Donald Walsch (author of Conversations with God) called “The Little Soul and The Sun”. I hadn’t thought about it since, but in a recent “I Am” meditation, I spoke the words “I am compassion” (Honestly, sometimes I feel like what I say is just wishful thinking, but the whole point of the I Am Meditation is to feel more aligned and connected to your higher self). The moment I said those words, I was reminded about The Little Soul and The Sun. If you haven’t read/listened to this story, I highly recommend it.
The Little Soul and The Sun is basically about a little soul that ponders who he is and what his purpose is. The little soul finds out that he is “light” but remains curious and presses God for more answers. Excited with his new found identity, the soul asks God if he can now “be the light and feel what it is like to be light.”
God responds “You are like a candle in the Sun. You are there, along with a million other candles that make up the Sun. And the Sun would not be the Sun without you. So how to know yourself as Light when you are among the Light? Since you cannot see yourself as the Light, I will surround you with darkness.”
The Little Soul asks “What is darkness?” And God replies, “It is that which you are not.”
God reminds the Little Soul, “When you are surrounded with darkness, do not shake your first and raise your voice and curse the darkness. Rather, be a Light unto the darkness, and don’t be mad about it. Then you will know who you really are, and all others will know too.”
In the end, the Little Soul exclaims to God that he wants to be special by being Forgiving as well. And so it was… he was given a life in which he had to learn forgiveness by experiencing times in which he had to forgive.
The story is a tear-jerker but really got me thinking about my own life and my own unpleasant experiences. Who am I? What is my purpose? If we are all from God, and God is Light, then the Light that I am might be compassion.
Well… It might be a bunch of things. But the word Compassion hit a soft spot in my heart as I was doing my I Am Meditation. Let’s say I was Compassion (or whatever I may be). Then it would make sense that for whatever difficulty I may encounter, it is simply an opportunity for me to remember who I am. To practice being Compassion. If I am confident and stand strong in who I Am, then dealing with the obstacles is much more easier, because I remember that they aren’t obstacles- they are blessings. Here is my chance to learn my truth, act accordingly, and avoid reacting as someone that I am not.
Maybe my purpose in life lays down before me every day, in different ways, in different moments, through different encounters- and yes, some of those are testing my compassion and obstacles that make it difficult to be so. If life were a video game, it could be seen as though every moment or event or person is just one level. If I pass, I move on to something better. If I pass, I graduate that stage and become a little smarter, a little better, and a little closer to awakening to my higher self. The sad news is that you can’t skip that shit. If I throw that opportunity away- if I piss and moan at the difficulty or inconvenience and hassle of the opportunity, I go farther away from the goal -alignment with my true self. Mastering this game.
There comes a time when you are at the end of your rope. You tell yourself (and every one else) that “I’ve done everything I can do. There is no way I can change this situation” and then you realize that you indeed did not do everything you could do. To change the mind is a scary thing. We are so sure that we are justified in expecting another person to change. Their behavior is inappropriate and out-right bad. But after a while of this kind of thinking, I realized, it’s not the situation that needs changing. It’s the way you look at the situation that needs changing. And besides, it’s a hella lot more empowering that way, because it’s 100% all your choice. This may not be everyone’s goal, but it’s mine, and the reminder helped me re-examine my current struggle and accept the challenge graciously.
Neale Donald Walsch’s “The Little Soul and The Sun”
Soulful Detox 