The Best Things Inside Our Hearts

I ran across on old journal this morning.  I was thinking about the times we’re in now, and somehow that got me to reviewing past times.  There I found a quote from my son when he was 13 years old.  I had asked him how he would explain God to little children, and he said “it’s the best things that are inside your heart.”

I thought about that – in these times of coronavirus – with so many uncertainties and so much suffering for so many. And how, when I slip into fear, the best things inside my heart seem to go underground.  Fear makes Love fade into the background for me – and yet I know that these times are made for Love. If ever Love was needed front and center, it’s right now.

So, I do my best to turn the “what ifs” into what is, and try to accept that.

But if I go deeper than acceptance, I can welcome what is.

And if I go deeper than acceptance, I can love what is.

That is a BIG STRETCH for me!  To love things that cause great suffering seems kinda crazy. Yet I know that to resist “what is” creates it’s own kind of craziness.  If I try to bring Hope into the picture, then I notice a shift. Like, what if I turned the “what ifs” that can keep me up at night into a whole different kind of “what if?”

What if this crisis helps us to recognize the inequities we have created in our society?  Where we stop accepting that there are “haves and have nots” and what is occurring now became the Great Equalizer .  Where we’re all brought to our knees because this virus doesn’t discriminate – and rich and poor, privileged and non-privileged are impacted in such a way that we wake up to our common humanity.

What if we recognize this crisis as a call of distress from our Dear Mother Earth – whose warning cries have previously taken form as floods and fires and hurricanes and tornadoes and earthquakes -which we have been ignoring for so long. For so long we have failed to see that the air and the waters and the lands have been poisoned by our failure to recognize that what effects one will eventually effect the All.

What if the result of this crisis is to awaken to our True Nature – which is Love – and we recognized the innate value in all Beings – from the plant people, to the stone people, to the winged ones, to those that swim the waters, to the 4 legged, to the 2 legged. To All That Is.

What if our suffering caused our hearts to crack wide open as we watch the devastation within our own circles and in all the circles that don’t seem like they’re part of our circle.  But they are.  There is nothing that is not in our circle – the Circle Of Life – where we all reside and are all related.

What if our hearts are cracked open and we see “the best things that are inside our hearts”.  And the best things that are inside of everyone’s heart.  For all of us are the Light taken form.  It’s just that some of us have forgotten that amazing fact because it got covered over by our own suffering somewhere along the way.

So if we can connect with our own suffering, and the suffering of others – perhaps there can truly be a Great Turning.  Towards love.  After all, it’s when our hearts get cracked open that the Light gets in.

Which takes me back to where I began this musing.  What if I loved what is right now? That is a big stretch for me!  But if I allow Hope to enter in – for what hidden gems may lay in the mud – it’s a bit easier.

So, I’m going to work on that. I’m going to do my best to go deeper than my fear, and touch that place of Love and Hope, which exists inside all of us. I know that Great Good can come from the hardest of things. I have witnessed that before in my life.

May it be so.  This is my prayer.

May you be well.  May we all be well as we ride the storms.  As Thich Nhat Hanh says “May the boat of loving kindness carry you over the ocean of suffering.”