When I was younger my Nan used to say, “Have some of this chicken soup little one, it’s good for your soul“. It was the first time I had heard of the word soul-and also that I had one. The second time I came across the word soul was when I went to Sunday School and my teacher said during the class, “When you die your soul goes to heaven”.

I realised that all people must have a soul, but I was confused as to what my soul actually was. I asked my Nan this one day and she said that your soul wasn’t a physical part of your body like your arm or your leg, but rather the essence of you, the most perfect part of you that should be nurtured and looked after. She said that if your soul was happy you would be happy. She then gave me one of those huge smiles like adults do when they think they have answered your question. I smiled back as I didn’t want to hurt her feelings, but I secretly thought it was a pretty crappy explanation. I still didn’t understand what my soul was. But I knew that you don’t ever get proper answers from adults anyway. They always seemed to explain things very vaguely, but then say things like they know best. I didn’t really understand that either, except that adults were very strange generally.

As like most of the important questions you have as a child get forgotten, such as why there is good and evil in the world, I forgot about trying to understand my soul. When I think about it now, I haven’t learnt much more than my beloved Nan told me all those years ago. I think of my soul like my conscience-I know I have one, but I don’t know where it comes from, or why I have one, or what it is. All of what I know about my soul is just intuitive, like it was for my Nan.

For example, I know that my soul likes feeling comforted and safe. My soul does not like concrete cities and loud, angry music. My soul loves spectacular sunsets and seeing desert plains that stretch out forever. My soul can feel very troubled at the way the world is. My soul can feel incredibly sad and alone sometimes. And somehow I know that my soul is the part of me that is most connected with all the natural, beautiful and real things in this world.

So maybe Nan was right after all, your soul is the most perfect part of you that should be nurtured and looked after. But then again, maybe I am just an adult now and there is a lot more to it than that, as my child self knew all those years ago.