When I ponder the word “deep,” the image of a canyon appears. Standing at the north rim of the Grand Canyon, I remember peering down, down deep into that massive cut in the earth. All those layers of rock and time, telling a story about everything that has passed through its depth. All it has witnessed.
A deep soul is someone whose interior life is like that, a unique human version of the Grand Canyon. Someone that also provides a place for others to visit and experience awe, and their own internal vastness.
Or, someone who aspires to that – for a life that is a natural artwork, a thing of beauty and mystery.
Deep souls especially embody three traits.
First, they explore. Not in a haphazard, puppy-like “what’s this new smell” dash-after-it-into-the-street way. But with purpose, and the question, “Where does this trail lead?” And when they’ve traversed every known path, they go off trail, cutting a new way where there was none before.
Second, they have range. From the highest mountains of the human spirit, to the lowest unknowns of our internal oceans, they are not content with restricting themselves to one geography or ecosystem. They find ways to adapt to them all, delighting in the particularities of each, and finding commonality across experiences.
Third, they wonder. They look, eyes open, and see possibility everywhere. They gather, hands outstretched, bringing parts together in harmony. They love, from a center of renewing compassion and mercy, directed even to the ugliest parts of ourselves. And they marvel at it all.
That’s what a deep soul is like. Have you met one? Are you one?