What's a Soul?

I had a conversation with a co-worker the other day about my dogs and the difficulty I was having with them and their obedience. Due to a bout of frustration, I hit Kai on the nose and felt really really bad about it. My coworker said, "Well that's ok because Dogs don't have a soul." Without thinking I responded with, "Of course they do, every living thing has a soul/spirit." She defined a soul as your "will" or ability to make a "choice" which is interesting but I think Dogs do choose and have a will. So Jake and I talked about it at the park today and he thought humans and animals have a spirit because they have a brain but plants and other organisms have "the essence of life or energy." That makes sense because plants that are talked to seem to flourish and I don't think it is because of the actual conversation but the energy you are investing into the plant. With that understanding I then asked him, "If you're not dead then what are you?" and he replied, "Alive." Which I then asked, "What is it that makes something alive and you can't just say because it's not dead." Jake's thought was anything that grows. So take a cellular process, I suppose it grows but I'm just still not sure on this. What makes something alive or is the essence of life and what has a soul/spirit?

Future Wishes

As a little girl I always loved stumbling across the dead dandelion because it meant I was able to blow all of the seeds like bubbles into the air and make a wish. There was something magical for me no matter how many times I did it. Today, I really haven't grown out of it and in fact appreciate this from a different light because it keeps the little girl in alive in me. The Dandelion Postings are just my inquiries, my quandaries, my curiosities, my naievities and my plain old messups. Nothing deep or symbolic about my title I simply like the way it sounds, the way it feels and the fact that to notice the dead dandelions OR the alive wishes waiting to be plucked, you have to take time to observe, be in the moment, remember to dream, and soak in the world around you. You also have to be willing to consider viewing something from a different perspective or you may have nothing but a bunch of dead weeds overtaking your yard.

Thank you for visiting The Dandelion Postings.