The fruits of the journey

'When the soul awakens at midlife and presents its gifts, life is permanently marked by the inclusion of them. Taken in, they become the hallmark

of your life, the core of your uniqueness.'

                                                                               Murray Stein

Over the centuries and in every culture across the world, we have been telling ourselves stories that speak of the soul journey. We call them myths. They are the stories that communicate to us at the deepest level of our being, that speak to us of fundamental truths about ourselves and about our journey through life. Amongst them are the so-called ‘hero myths’. In his book, ‘The Hero with a Thousand Faces', the mythologist Joseph Campbell argues that all such mythical journeys tell the story of our search for soul and that they all unfold in similar ways. He called this universal myth ‘the hero’s journey'. As we identify with the hero or heroine and engage with their story through the power of our imagination, so it awakens us to our inner journey. To be a hero or heroine of this journey does not demand that we do something that society would deem extraordinary or heroic. It only asks of us that we respond to the promptings of our spirit when they come and that we entrust ourselves as fully as we are able to the journey of our own becoming.

Campbell calls the climax of the hero’s journey ‘the Return’. Our final task, he says, is to take the road back into the world, carrying with us the treasures we have received along the way. Writer Sue Monk Kidd calls these treasures 'gifts of the soul'. She writes, for example, of the gift of authenticity, the capacity to acknowledge, welcome and be who she is; of the gift of delight, the joy of 'saying yes to life in the core of our being' even in the midst of its most painful moments; of the gift of 'a return to the earth', a deepening awareness of her connectedness and oneness with the natural world; and of the gift of a deeper compassion and a willingness to 'become the source of nourishment for our brothers and sisters.'

In similar vein, philosopher Henri Thoreau writes of receiving many such gifts from his own soul journey in the woods at Walden Pond. Amongst other things, he learnt that choosing to lead a simpler life stripped of all unneccesary luxuries brought him to a place of greater freedom and deeper contentment. He learnt that focusing on what really matters and on finding a sense of purpose in life led him into a more meaningful existence. He learnt that he only felt truly happy and fulfilled when he was living authentically. And he learnt too that spending time alone in the natural world enabled him to connect more deeply with his innermost self and to deepen his spiritual life.

Psychologist Bill Plotkin calls these gifts 'our core powers'. They are, he says, our deepest and most enduring powers - our core knowledge, abilities and values. Each of us is born with these treasures buried deep in the core of our being. Our core knowledge comprises those things that in some mysterious way, our soul has always known. Our core abilities are the natural gifts, talents and qualities with which we were born and our core values are those values, principles and convictions that are central to who we are, that are of the utmost importance to us, that shape our way of being in the world. To fulfil our personal destiny is to recognise, embody and develop these core powers so that they may be offered to the world. It is in a sense, to 'become' the treasures with which he have been gifted. Plotkin calls this our 'soul work'.

For each of us, the gifts of the journey will be unique to us. Along the way, we will have different experiences. We will come to know different things. We will discover different truths. We will recognise different gifts and callings. We will forge different paths through life. As I have listened to others tell the story of their soul journeys, however, I have learnt that underlying these differences, there are certain key gifts that all of us have received. There is, for example, a deeper knowing that we share. There is a particular way of being and loving that we embrace. And there are certain capacities and qualities that grow stronger within us as we journey such as our creativity, our intuition and wisdom and our capacity to love.

These are the principal fruits of the soul journey and as they fall into our hands, they take us ever deeper into what the psychologist Abraham Maslow calls 'the realm of Being'. We move beyond merely surviving and seeking our own personal fulfilment to living a life that is filled with meaning, purpose, passion and a deep connection with our soul, with others and with the earth. We have a clearer vision of the ideal, of how we could be and of how the world could be if all of us were to enter into the soul journey to which we are called. Often, we become innovators, discoverers, trail-blazers with a deep sense of social responsibility to others, the world and the wider universe and a passionate desire to make a difference. We are discovering the highest dimensions of our humanity, 'the farther reaches of human nature' as Maslow puts it.

Bibliography

Murray Stein (1983) In Midlife. Spring Publications

Sue Monk Kidd (1990 When the Heart Waits. HarperOne

Abraham Maslow (2024) Toward a Psychology of Being. Zinc Read

Abraham Maslow (1993) The Farther Reaches of Human Nature. Penguin Arkana

Bill Plotkin (2003) Soulcraft: Crossing into the mysteries of nature and psyche. New World Library

Henri Thoreau (2017) Walden; Or Life in the Woods. Vintage Classics

©Copyright Kaitlyn Steele 2026

Kaitlyn Steele

www.insearchofsoul.co.uk 

kaitlynsteele16@gmail.com