The soul wants one thing, the ego another. The soul requires essential things for its sustenance. The ego desires this and that to satisfy its appetites. There is a constant battle within us where spiritual nutrition for the soul is pitted against empty but comforting junk food that feeds nothing but the ego.

After stuffing ourselves on whatever satisfies our vanity and need for applause. After accomplishing great works of self-determination. After wearing our virtues and sacrifices like a necklace. After immersing ourselves in materialism and fully indulging our senses, our spirit cries out, thirsts for God.

Vanity – all is vanity. A disease that often and particularly afflicts the rich.

When one is rich in many possessions or satisfactions, there’s no incentive to nurture the soul. The soul is so deprived and starved as to leave a vacuous look in one’s eyes.

If we could attune ourselves to the cries and needs of the soul – not just during some wistful, fleeting moments, when we pause to add a little depth to our lives – then we would be able to sort “ego wants” from spiritual needs.

We could begin to feed ourselves with good, solid spiritual food, avoiding those things that poison our souls. We could establish a foundation for a life lived in truth and provide for our true well being – charity toward that spiritual essence that springs from God.

But, like the truly poor and humble, our souls will not force themselves upon us. We, with our ambitious drives and epicurean tastes, so quickly squash the soul in our quests for pleasure, comfort, self-satisfaction and the profane.

We have to constantly entertain ourselves lest we slip into boredom and have to confront our emptiness. We keep ourselves constantly distracted so as not to face real issues.

And the more distracted and entertained we are, the more we must keep at bay those moments of being alone with our thoughts for fear of seeing what an empty shell of an existence we live.

All props and fluff: a total facade and mimicry of living. White-washed tombs behind which lie rotting corpses.

If we continue to ignore the voice of our soul throughout life, we will surely slay it.