Like everyone I know, my life, too, has been a long series of interwoven relationships, both good and bad. I value them all. For it was mainly through these relationships that I survived my infancy, completed my childhood, ended my adolescence and moved toward a dynamic state of growing to maturity. They have been living lessons in meeting defeat, letting go and overcoming fear. They have helped to free my spirit and eradicate my fear of loving. My relationships are still my major source of stimulation, causing me to remain open, curious, eager to learn and be challenged by change. Now I understand more than ever the poet W.H. Auden's remark, "WE MUST LOVE ANOTHER OR DIE!"
Isn't it time that we forget our petty egos, give up our fear of appearing sentimental or naive and come together in our universal need, one for the other? Why it is so difficult for us to embrace each other fearlessly and with passion and to say, "HUMAN BEING, TAKE MY HUMAN HAND?" We all need each other.
Thursday, August 23, 2007
Follow your heart, by: Joseph A. Galdon. S.J.
I have been cleaning out my notes. That is an annual event. I sort out my notes each year and throw away those that are no longer useful, but then have to do it all over again the following year. (Some people collect stamps or ceramic vases-- Jesuits collect notes!) As i was going through the notes I came across an article I had almost forgotten about. I don't even know who wrote it, but it makes a beautiful reflection and I thought I might share it with you this week:
"I know the sun will rise every morning, even when there are clouds. I know the birds sing melodious songs because I have heard them from the empty enclosure of my room. I know the sky is blue through the clouds, that the grass is green even when I stand in the desert. I know the branches of trees dance to the movements of the wind even though now the wind is still. I know flowers have beautiful smells, that the ocean never sleeps, and that rain falls upon high mountains. I know deeply that all human beings are beautiful if they are born to follow their hearts."
It has been said, long ago before these words were written, that if you build an archway for your heart, with neither lock nor door, life will pass freely through that archway in harmony with your senses.
Touch your friends, your husband or wife, and they are strangers no more. Hold them as you would the delicate petals of an orchid, or put your hand in a gentle stream, or feel the sand beneath your feet, or climb upon the rocks and crabs on the shoreline.
Listen to their words, their breathing, their heartbeat, their footsteps at the door as they come to you, as you would listen to the rain, or the cock crowing in the early morning, or the bark of a dog, or the cascading of a waterfall, or a tiny breeze.
See the expressions on their faces of their different moods. See in their eyes the longing for love, companionship and a meaningful purpose to their lives. See their body move, uniting themselves with life.
See their hands create their being as you would see a quiet pool, the splash of a wave, a new portrait made by falling rain, the landscape of a valley, the changing of a sunset.
"I know the sun will rise every morning, even when there are clouds. I know the birds sing melodious songs because I have heard them from the empty enclosure of my room. I know the sky is blue through the clouds, that the grass is green even when I stand in the desert. I know the branches of trees dance to the movements of the wind even though now the wind is still. I know flowers have beautiful smells, that the ocean never sleeps, and that rain falls upon high mountains. I know deeply that all human beings are beautiful if they are born to follow their hearts."
It has been said, long ago before these words were written, that if you build an archway for your heart, with neither lock nor door, life will pass freely through that archway in harmony with your senses.
Touch your friends, your husband or wife, and they are strangers no more. Hold them as you would the delicate petals of an orchid, or put your hand in a gentle stream, or feel the sand beneath your feet, or climb upon the rocks and crabs on the shoreline.
Listen to their words, their breathing, their heartbeat, their footsteps at the door as they come to you, as you would listen to the rain, or the cock crowing in the early morning, or the bark of a dog, or the cascading of a waterfall, or a tiny breeze.
See the expressions on their faces of their different moods. See in their eyes the longing for love, companionship and a meaningful purpose to their lives. See their body move, uniting themselves with life.
See their hands create their being as you would see a quiet pool, the splash of a wave, a new portrait made by falling rain, the landscape of a valley, the changing of a sunset.
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