‘Soul Catching’

Good stories travel fast.  I think that is still the case, because almost spontaneously when I hear something beautiful, inspiring or newsworthy I feel the inclination to want to share it immediately with someone else. There are of course some stories which are just written for the times we are in, and others transcend time and place and speak to us wherever we are and whatever we might be doing.  This is one such story.

There was once a traveller who planned a safari to Africa.  It was planned with great attention to detail with a clear travel destination, a set timetable, maps, and a clear agenda of the things to see and do.  So nothing left to chance.  Some local people had even been hired to transport some of the supplies as they trekked throughout the land—it was that level of planning.

On the first morning, they all woke up early and travelled fast and covered a great distance. The second morning was the same—woke up early, travelled fast, and travelled far.  The third morning, the same thing. But on the fourth morning, the local hired help refused to move.  Instead, they sat by a tree in the shade well into the morning.  The traveller became incensed and irate and said to his translator, “This is a waste of valuable time. Can someone tell me what’s going on here?”  The translator looked at him and calmly answered, “They’re waiting for their souls to catch up with their bodies.”

So summer time is here, and even if in the rhythm of things, it does not seem that it makes any difference at all; maybe it is just worth doing a bit of ‘Soul Catching’.

Thank you Anne for sharing this story with me, which of course, I too,  just had to pass on.

(Terry Hershey, who wrote a book called Sacred Necessities: Gifts for Living with Passion, Purpose, and Grace, about some of the spiritual gifts essential for living a balanced and healthy life, was the person who first told this story about an American tourist (see pages 68-69).