She caught me off guard when my soul said to me,

“Have we met?”

So surprised I was to hear her speak like that

I chuckled.

She begin to sing a tale: “There was once a hardworking man

who used to worry so much because he could

not feed and clothe his children and

wife the way he wanted.

There was a beautiful little chapel in the village

where the man lived and one day while

he was praying, an angel

appeared.

The angel said, ‘Follow me.’ And he did out into an ancient forest.

‘Now dig here,’ the angel said. And the man felt strength in

his limbs he had not known since youth and with just

his bare hands he dug deep and found a

lost treasure, and his relationship with the world changed.”

Finding our soul’s beauty does that — gives us

tremendous freedom

from worry.

“Dig here,” the angel said —

“in your soul,

in your

soul.”

Poetry by St. John of the Cross (1542-1591) of Spain

Translation by Daniel Ladinsky

Photo source: maple tree