How Shall We Define Our Spirit?
Spirit is derived from a latin word meaning “breath” and Soul has an Indo-European origin meaning “to breath”
Our bodies define us as living creatures, Our minds define us as sentient, rational beings. Our spirit or soul embodies our essence: that which makes us the individuals we recognize ourselves to be. The essence of our personalities and all that we stand for emerges from our physical and mental selves.
Even the essence of identical twins differ. Upon casual contact they may be indistinguishable, but for anyone who knows them takes only a short while to tell them apart. By their actions, mannerisms, conduct, and certain qualities each alone possesses, they quickly distiquish themselves apart from one another.
We may also relate this essence to our inner self, our inner being. We, all to often, get caught up in our daily, hectic lives to the point we may lose touch with ourselves, our true selves. It is very easy to follow the many routines we’ve built into our lives..
Think for a moment about all the “sub-routines” that make up your day. You will find that for the most part nearly all of your waking hours are comprised of a continuum of successive daily rituals, from once we get up in the morning to whence we put ourselves to bed at night. Now, this isn’t neccessarily a bad thing. Most of the motions we go through are important in sustaining our lives, we are maintained by them.
However, just maintaining our physical presence in this world wll eventually prove to be insufficient in sustaining our vitality. The “Daily Routine” has a way of becoming a daily grind and can begin to wear on us. The thing that is “wearing” is our vitality – essentially our essence.
Try as we may, we can only go on for so long in self-operating mode. We are much more than just automatons. Occasionally, we actually need to re-aquaint ourselves with ourselves. Somewhere along the line we should stop, or at least slow down, long enough to rest, recouperate, and re-evaluate. Sometime we need to ask: What am I doing, and why? Where do I think I’m going? Is it all worth it?
We truly are more than just the sum of our parts. That which transends our physicality emerges as our spirt, our soul…our essence