Nature's Bounty - Flakes, Needles, and Cones
You carry your worth in your heart. Gregge Tiffen (Echo September 10, 2012)
At times such as this with the joy of the holidays juxtaposed with violence near and far, I’m tempted to generalize with words that paint us to be the same. Something like: ‘our hearts are heavy.’ Yet, we are different. The heaviness in my heart is unique and personal to me. It flows from all the experiences in my life – the good, the bad, the ugly, the distant, and those events that are fresh.
How we each walk through life’s events doesn’t just determine the quality of our life. It contributes to the quality of life on our planet.
Yesterday I woke extraordinarily early. My thoughts were scattered and unfocussed. The theme seemed to be one of angst. I felt unsettled. Something was off in how I’d walked through the events of the previous day. I wasn’t satisfied with the tone I’d projected, especially in relating to others; quite the opposite in fact.
This isn’t a new experience. I’m far from perfect and sometimes I react, speaking before I think. Generally, I’m able to move on, cleaning up any mess with a sincere apology or other appropriate action.
This felt different: deeper and more unsettling. The practices that usually bring me back to my center didn’t banish my angst. Only after a long hike and returning home to chop wood (using more mental focus than physical strength) did my mind calm down enough to reflect and gain some clarity.
Blessed to live in the shadow of this beauty.
Additional words from Gregge, along with remembering that all of my words live forever, provided a perspective for understanding my angst:
You are designed to interact with people to the highest degree of your person through your posture, your body movements, the expression in your eyes as well as with the words you choose. In that way, you naturally carry people with you to a higher spiritual level.
I saw more clearly than ever before that there are no meaningless events or interactions. And, I wondered:
What kind of world will we create as more and more of us walk through the events and interactions of life truly being ‘the highest degree of our person’?
And, how can I expand my heart to be just that?
Maybe we can learn to play and be free with models like these as our teachers and guides.