Soul School

What if none of world around us with which we busy ourselves and care so deeply about is real? What if all of it--the house, the car, the job, the education, the people--all of it is just a fiction, contrived to offer us opportunities to learn and grow our souls?  Actually, I think that is so: life is a school for the soul.

None of the lessons we have to learn...in whatever form they show up--unpleasant people, bad habits, sugar, challenging circumstances...is real. Each simply tests our spiritual understanding and invites us to be whole.  Think of it like "story problems" in math.  The story is simply a set of circumstances to force us to solve a math problem.  Things that happen in our lives are simply sets of circumstances to force us to solve a spiritual problem. 

Now mastering a lesson is not a one-time test.  You know that same boss you've had at five different jobs?  (Not really the same person, but the same set of challenges packaged to help you learn.) Like the story problems in math, the stories change but the solution is always the same. I don't mean taking exactly the same actions, but can you find a spiritual resolution in a variety of situations with the same underlying problem?  If so, you have mastered the lesson.

Instead of getting grades though, in soul school each time we master a lesson we get lighter.  You know the feeling: when it feels like you could jump for joy and click your heels.  That is light.  When we get bogged down in lessons, we get heavy and tired--just slogging through life.

I am not sure but I am pretty confident the secret may be to simply choose lighter. If we just laugh at the challenges instead of getting wrapped around the axle by them, we score. If we love and support those who test us, we score. And we sure feel a lot better, too.