More to life?

I popped this on to Substack yesterday. It has a more spiritual dimension to it than some of my blogs.

I may have written before that I choose to believe in what I call "essence" or "soul"; "something" that came with me into my human life and that will leave this body when it dies to go... well, who knows where it will go?

I'm taking a funeral in a few days and his widow tells me that, during the night before he died, she experienced a light floating over his body before going out of the window; this meant that she could hold him in the light until his body died a few hours later. "Rubbish" says the mind; "beautiful" says my essence. Here’s a poem…

I wonder if there’s more to life

Than what I have experienced

Since I was born

What I am experiencing now

And what I will experience until I die

This life in a physical body

In a physical world

Part of and surrounded by

The physical

With a physical nervous system

That for many good reasons tries to keep me safe

By creating a fortress around me

Using the mind as my guard

As it interprets my life

And creates stories about what I should or shouldn’t do

How I should or shouldn’t behave

Creating reactions that might work for our animal siblings

But don’t work as well for humans

Even calling animals “siblings” has created a twitch from the guard

Who sees us humans as superior

Knowing what we need to know to make life better

With all our understanding and scientific insights

And so on and so forth

Which brings me back to my question

Is there more to all this or is this it?

Because we humans don't seem to doing too well

For all the wisdom we have acquired

My answer to my question is

I don’t know

And I choose to believe that as long as I do my best

That’s good enough

And how do I know I’m doing my best?

I won’t

Though I can choose to open my heart to possibilities

That the mind won’t like at all

Possibilities for being with nature

Being with others and with myself

In ways that won’t tick the mind’s boxes of success

And will instead allow the chance for me (and you)

To find awareness of something more present

And peaceful

And fulfilling

Than anything the mind can think

I choose to believe that I can glimpse this something

By being open to that which came with me

Into this human physical life

I call this my essence, my soul

That will leave this body when it dies to go... 

Well, who knows where it will go? Maybe nowhere?

Maybe I’ll find out? Or not!

And I’m at peace with that