Thursday, July 16, 2009

OPENING THE HEART

The joy of a wedding opens the heart to grief.
The grief of a funeral opens the heart to love.
In this way we are beaten and forged, our hearts made pure and free.

When we loose someone close to us we grieve. We can choose to let the tears flow, feel the emotions flow; choose to open our hearts rather than close them. Then we experience again the love that we had for the one we have lost, and know that we can still be in relationship spiritually, if not physically.

Sometimes we do this in real time. Sometimes it is at a later time. Making space in ourselves to experience grief we clear space to experience love. Like the Grinch at that mythical Christmas, our heart grows larger.

I was at a wedding recently that generated a powerful field of love and community, opening the heart and soul, like a bird spreading its wings wide in the joy of flight. It was a transformative experience. In the next few days I had levels of old grief come up. The energy of love had opened my heart wider and there was more space for the love that is grief to come forth and heal me as well.

Like Rumi I welcomed this unexpected guest, knowing that the cycle moves back and forth, that experiencing this grief, even though I wasn't even sure what it was about, would in turn open my heart for love even further.

The more we dare to feel, the clearer we become and the more we can feel those things we seek. When we allow ourselves to expand at either end of the spectrum, we expand the whole spectrum, and in time we are freer and freer to choose which end we call home.

Grief is not the enemy of love, but a brother with a different name. If we welcome both as aspects of our ability to live and feel deeply we enlarge our hearts spiritually and there is more space for Spirit to enter in, more space to be alive and present, more space to give and to receive, more space for the energies that are joy and love.

As your heart opens you can "feel" into life more strongly, in yourself, in nature, in others. I invite you to practice this; just intend to open your heart, let your awareness drop into your chest and invite the experience what is already there, gently give it space to be. Or open outward to the trees, the flowers, all of nature is waiting to heal you. We are shifting how we experience this world, and it can help us if we create space to notice our relationship to it.

May you find the joy you seek, remembering that all roads lead to life and love when we walk them with open hearts.

(© 7/09)

Wednesday, July 1, 2009

AMUSEMENT AND SOUL

I'd like to invite you to remember something amusing. Perhaps something you saw, or did, or heard. Now deepen that feeling, set your intention for a fuller experience of amusement, and let go. Distill it down. Notice the images or words and let them fall like leaves in the autumn. Notice the feelings of amusement, the emotional aspects, releasing any other feelings and flowing to something beyond words.

Feel the laughter, in your throat, in your belly, in your heart. If anything limits your laughter, intend to release it. Stay with the physical experience of amusement, and keep distilling. Let yourself be led into the vibration of amusement that bubbles up out of your very cells. Full of play and joy.

Let that feeling expand in you. Dive deep. Through this portal of amusement you are opening into life force itself. Amusement is the tip of the iceberg of love.

Remember a sight in nature that caused you to be so alive that you laughed out loud; a child playing, something a friend said. You couldn't even say why you laughed, and you knew that it didn't matter why, just that you felt alive and joyful and the laughter was how it expressed through you.

Let yourself expand, feeling the bubbling of amusement, the deep power of love welling up in your every cell, filling the space between the cells. Relax into this and breath it deeply. Release any limitations. Allow yourself to feel alive in all your being.

True amusement is a state of being that is expansive, it creates space and allows spirit to enter in. It helps us to heal by helping us to let go, to find a little distance from things that are challenging. It is not about making lite of something serious, but it reminds us that we can always invite life in, even when we are dying.

Do we need a reason to laugh, to love , to feel alive? It is a portal to your essence. Carry it with you and practice it often.
(© 07/09)