To follow one’s soul’s message sounds so simple. The concept is easy enough to imagine. Hearing the soul’s message is like watching a butterfly move through the air. It is delivered quickly, like the butterfly. In both, the moment disappears as quickly as it appeared. Yet, here ends the resemblance. After all, to stop and experience the butterfly costs us nothing and rewards us completely. To embrace the soul’s message is hard work.

Hard work ensues because the soul inevitably takes us into an area of growth and change. First, like a journey on a long road, the ultimate destination is invisible. A simple example — I feel the message to eat a piece of fruit rather than a donut. If I chose the fruit, the health effect on my body will be not clear to me, immediately. It will be the healthier body which will emerge over time. Here is another example — I feel the need to leave a job. I do it! I have lost my livelihood, a frame of reference and a place in the world. In exchange I have the unknown. Again, I do not know what will happen next – it is invisible until I chose again.

Second, what happens after each experience is different. The butterfly disappears. The soul does not. The soul’s urging is persistent and enduring. The message will return to us, asking us to choose again. We embrace the message, or, we push it deep into the dirt of our being. It is as if we hope it might become compost for the plant our ego has planted. But, alas, the soul’s message has a deep and well cultivated root. That root is fed by the source of life, not the ego. We cannot kill it, or, pull it out, or will it to wither and die. We can only cover it with metaphoric dried leaves and snow and rain. For instance, with addiction to overwork, stress, news overloads, mystery TV shows, perpetual change, substances, and other behaviors. But, still, our message is ever ready to pop out of that rich soil of our soul, at the most inconvenient time.

I had a friend who said , “I feel the urge to write, often. When I do, I just lie down until the feeling goes away,” and she laughed. This woman was choosing to kill the message from her soul. It wanted to write… and she was choosing not to. I don’t remember why. It had to do with it being just too much bother. It was a choice of her ego. The soul wanted empowerment. The ego wanted control.

Another friend in his 50s was a successful lawyer. He told me that when he was 25 he knew he was supposed to write. He had gone to law school instead. I could feel his regret. He had gained the financial comfort and status he had sought, and, yet, he was troubled. He had yet to claim the inner peace and light waiting for him.

The soul’s calling is not an easy path. It pulls us into the world of unknowns. It usually means the hard work of change. But, it will always lead us to the true treasure…self empowerment. It requires only the turn of the knob. Next, we must walk through the door to the inevitable gold. Then we experience the beauty of healing and growth, not unlike the almost unfathomable beauty of the butterfly.