Beginnings and Endings

When I was 9 years old, we moved to the countryside My playground was the lush green fields covered in buttercups Where sheep and cow grazed free And when I climbed the stile and ran down to the river They would turn their heads at me. I lay on the banks of the Ribble and watched As the clouds drifted along the blue painted sky And wondered how the world was made Who made it and why. Suddenly I heard a clear spoken voice Which startled, the sound was not mine It said , You are a body in a body Within these 70 years and more, I recall it for all time. What was the voice I heard that day The meaning I did not know I had not heard of soul And through my search of what it could be My only answer is that of, a whole. The sun and Moon the rain the snow The seasons pass the years they go Perhaps the child knew from the start We are the sum of the part.