There are certain lost things that are lost forever. And there are other lost things that were never lost. We have just given up the looking. We’ve grown tired, burdened and wearisome of the search. There are certain lost things that you will not miss, that you are better off without, that were never really yours.

And then there are pieces of your sacred heart that have been cut from you, sewn in to some mountainside, hurled into canyons, splattered against ocean rocks. And they have been calling your name ever since, howling you back to wholeness.

I’ve had a lot of resistance to the idea of Soul-loss for a very long time. But over the years of working with people (and myself) I’ve realized this is very real and must be taken seriously if we want to live real, whole, soul-full lives.

We have incarnated so, so many times. We have squeezed and chiseled these boulders that are our Souls into these tiny pebbles that could fit in an hourglass. We leave something behind. We are meant to.

The sweet journey back to wholeness is the Universe falling madly in love with itself over, and over, and over again. I’ll choose it again and again, even on my worst days.

We are meant to loose pieces of ourselves along the way. This happens through devastating events. Events that leave us utterly shattered, in pieces. I’m talking trauma of any kind. In this life or others. We can loose pieces of ourselves out of ignorance, thinking we do not need something. We misunderstand the value of some part of us. We do not miss it until it’s gone. Or perhaps we’ve experienced pain associated with some treasure in us, and so have made an agreement not to own that gift in us. Whatever the reason, we all have pieces of ourselves we are longing to meet again.

Luckily, there are clues back home. The Soul is clever, much cleverer than we are. It leaves breadcrumbs in the form of longing. Longing is the lost pieces of our souls calling back towards us. They are the invisible threads tying us to all our parts, all our pieces. It is our web of wholeness. You see, we have always been whole. We just gotta tug at our longing threads. Listen deep enough for the real ones, the ancient ones, the holy ones, the unholy ones, the ones that know your true names. I’m not talking about longing for that fast car or the best lover or the ego-stroking job. I’m talking about longing that stings deep in the bones. The ones we wish we didn’t hear. The ones we’d rather do without.

Many of us have fashioned lives around vital pieces of hearts missing. We have filled these holes with other things. And don’t you know? These stand ins make the longing worse. They create a deep ache don’t they? That’s because the Soul isn’t interested in making your life easy and neat and tidy. The Soul is interested in wholeness. Wholeness at any price – your comfort, your goals, your ideas about a perfect life.

Let the howl of the Soul take you home. Let your invisible threads tie you up, tug you home. No, it might not be the way you envisioned. But I can promise, it will be right.

Listen for the howl, the deep bellow. It might be a whimper at first. One so stinging it makes you weep. It might grow into a snarl, angry you left it behind all those stories ago. Let it in. Keep with the longing. You’ll enter into a large, hallow cavern. Where all that you feel is longing. A longing that canyon walls have to touch each other. A longing that the sun and moon will know so long as we have sky. A longing for Spirit to enter the body. THIS is the call of the Soul. This is the howl that tugs you home. Stand up and run after it if you have any sense at all.