"And O! when from life's transient cup
Thy lips have drunk their nectar up,
And left it empty, frail as this,
May the last golden drops to bliss,
And like this gem beneath the wine,
Thy glorious deathless jewel thine."
____ John Sobieski Stuart, "With an Antique
Crystal Cup and Ring
Our cup of life is forever filling and emptying as the tides of life and ebb and flow. To appreciate the rewards of life as we are living it gives flavor to the draught that we drink as well shape and luster to the soul that accompanies us in all our existences. Like a jewel dropped into a glass, so does our soul adorn our body. The body, like the wine, will be consumed, but the soul like the jewel, will endure.
The treasures of experience well lived and appreciated are brightly reflected in the facets of the soul, making our jewel yet more precious. The work of polishing the soul takes a lifetime, but at the end of this life there is a special urgency to 'make our soul' before we leave this incarnation. Those who have ignored their soul do not know what lies in the treasury of experience. Whatever is left in the cup of life looks to them like the lees of the wine, because the jewel is obscured to their vision. Sometimes we need days off to enter our own treasury and spend time reviewing our experience, both in the long and short term, paying attention to the patterns and spirals that have unfolded. Such times are never wasted, for they enable our soul's luster to brighten the wine of our life.
"What stories and experiences brighten your own soul's jewel?"
[From: The Celtic Spirit by Caitlin Matthews]
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