The Soul of the Whole

I question every single idea for every post I've ever had for this blog.  Does it fit my theme of 'Scattered Joy'?  Is it appropriate?  Should I include more writing or fewer words?  Will it attract readers to my blog or turn people away?   Is it funny?  Or interesting?  And will anybody even care?!  These are the things I regularly agonize over.  But today, for this post, I know without a doubt I have got it right.  I am so excited to be sharing this with you, I'm near bursting with anticipation.   


But first, I need to give you a bit of back-fill.  My blog's title, "Scattered Joy" is a play on the quote "Scatter joy" by the American poet & essayist Ralph Waldo Emerson.  That was the inspiration for my blog - to scatter the joy.  I don't care if my posts are crass, irreverent, serious, or soul-searching - as long as they're joyful.  That's my goal, and those who follow my blog regularly will know that sometimes I score, and sometimes I ricochet it off the post (anyone remember Glum Gloomy and Grim?).  Let's face it, I may be a glass-half-full kind of gal, but like everyone else, I have stresses and concerns that can cloud my days and darken my moods.  I've suffered my share of personal losses that knocked me flat and I've had to struggle to pull myself back up, grabbing tightly ahold of my personal philosophy of hope and love and beauty.  So when I discovered an essay by Emerson that expresses this philosophy far more eloquently than I ever could, I knew I had to share it with you.  Then, as I sat at my computer wondering how to incorporate it into my blog, I received an email containing a video that embodies Emerson's philosophy perfectly - the soul of the whole.  I know you're going to enjoy this!

The Over-Soul

By Ralph Waldo Emerson





We live in succession, in division, in parts, in particles. Meantime within man is the soul of the whole; the wise silence; the universal beauty, to which every part and particle is equally related, the eternal ONE. And this deep power in which we exist and whose beatitude is all accessible to us, is not only self-sufficing and perfect in every hour, but the act of seeing and the thing seen, the seer and the spectacle, the subject and the object, are one. We see the world piece by piece, as the sun, the moon, the animal, the tree; but the whole, of which these are shining parts, is the soul.