Where Soul Meets Body

I know I haven't been writing much lately. I've been busy and nothing has seemed to come up to write about. A thought I had a while ago was to share the reflections I have done with the other chaplains. This was today's reflection.

Last week I was listening to Pandora.com (all thanks go to Dan) and listened to a song I hadn't heard in a long time and a band that I don't normally listen to while partaking of the Muse station: "Soul Meets Body" by Death Cab For Cutie. During my reflection I played the song and typed out the lyrics for everyone to have.



For some reason I was particularly struck by the song at this time. I had heard it before but something had changed. It had a different meaning this go around for me. As I was listening to the beginning:

I want to live where soul meets body
And let the sun wrap its arms around me
And bathe my skin in water cool and cleansing
And feel, feel what its like to be new

Here is, what I presume to be, some sort of immaterial being who wants desperately to become human, the only way for a soul and body to be one. Life is beautiful and it wants to experience what it can only be an observer of.

Cause in my head there’s a greyhound station
Where I send my thoughts to far off destinations
So they may have a chance of finding a place
where they’re far more suited than here

The bus station has sort of become an iconic spot for a new beginning. You can get anywhere you want at the least expensive price. It reminds me of Red from "The Shawshank Redemption" as he rides the greyhound to his new life and says: "I find I'm so excited, I can barely sit still or hold a thought in my head. I think it is the excitement only a free man can feel, a free man at the start of a long journey whose conclusion is uncertain. I hope I can make it across the border. I hope to see my friend, and shake his hand. I hope the Pacific is as blue as it has been in my dreams. I hope". It's knowing we are finally where we belong.

And I cannot guess what we'll discover
When we turn the dirt with our palms cupped like shovels
But I know our filthy hands can wash one another’s
And not one speck will remain

A new life doesn't mean it will be perfect, you still get your hands dirty, but it's worth it. And perhaps most importantly is that we are not alone in this journey.

As I think about my work, it is easy to focus on death. Death is all around. Hell, last week I saw a dead kid in one of the morgue freezers. A kid we had been visiting and had died over the weekend. With babies in the NICU going through so much to live and generally kids spending more time in the hospital than school it's easy to think of them not getting to live a "full life"... however you measure that.

But as I was listening to this song I had thought that went through my head that I enjoyed a great deal. Perhaps all our souls were like the beginning of this song, aching so badly to live. The baby in the NICU, the kid on Hem/Onc with cancer, or the little one in PICU all decided to live despite knowing full well the pains that they might one day face because of how amazing it would be. It is where they belong, no matter how short or long it may be.

And if you are reading this thinking that they didn't get to make a difference, it couldn't be further from the truth. The effect of the lives of these kids, whether 1 day or 17 years, has a profound impact on so many people. It's amazing to see.