One of the open secrets of life on earth is that the answer to life’s burning question has been inscribed in one’s soul all along. The soul is a kind… - Michael J. Meade

Young people have always felt misunderstood; but increasingly they say that no one listens to them and that they do not feel seen. The connectivity of modern technology seems to offer a substitute for the process of being connected to and recognized by other people. However, people confuse simple connection with the crucial need to be truly seen and genuinely heard. What the soul longs for — and rightfully expects — is not simply to be recognized, but to receive confirmation of one’s genuine self; not an automatic response from a device, but acceptance as a unique and valuable person.

The hardest thing in life may be to learn to truly trust that there is something noble and generative in ourselves. This is a greater sense of the notion of believing in our self; to truly believe in oneself means to uncover the inner core of imagination and authenticity that can also be called the genius within us. When we connect to the inner resident of the soul, we also learn how we are woven to the Soul of the World.

Slow' and 'down' are modes of the soul; they are connective modes, ways of keeping connected to oneself and to one’s environment. 'Slowing downwards' refers to more than simply moving slowly, it means growing down towards the roots of one’s being. Instead of outward growth and upward climb, life at times must turn inward and downward in order to grow in other ways. There is a shift to the vertical down that re-turns us to root memories, root metaphors, and timeless things that shape our lives from within. Slowing downwards creates opportunities to dwell more deeply in one’s life, for the home we are looking for in this world is within us all along. The lost home that we are seeking is ourselves; it is the story we carry within our soul.