I AM

Several folks told me to see this movie, "I AM", produced in 2011. So last night, I finally did. People thought of me because of the obvious connection to HeartMath, given that the head scientist for HeartMath is well-featured in the movie. But it was so much more than that. How often do we get to listen to the likes of Desmond Tutu, and so many scientists who believe that we are all one? How often do we get...given the daily news...to get our souls fed with the place where science and spirituality meet up, and actually get inspired?

The filmmaker, a well-known producer of comedies, had some epiphanies after a dark time in his life covering from a head injury, and used his influence and funds to create a different sort of movie: one that asks "What is wrong with our world and what can we do about it?"

Perhaps we can all come away from this movie remembering how important our one tiny life actually is and how we can realize the gift of being here, interacting with the world and the universe every second.

A Mind of its Own

Ah, these hearts of ours. They have a mind of their own, don't they? Since scientists have discovered there are at least 40,000 neurons in the heart, it's actually somewhat true .

How do we listen? It speeds up, it gets irregular, it leaps, it hurts, it aches, it breaks. 

It also bursts with joy, warms in delight, and opens to love.

 Like this milagro heart in the photo: our hearts have been embedded with life experiences. 

It's all in how we respond that gives our hearts the wings and the flame to keep going.

"It began in mystery and it will end in mystery, but what a rare and beautiful country lies in between."

Diane Ackerman

The Shaky Place

Compassionate action starts with seeing yourself when you start to make yourself right and when you start to make yourself wrong. At that point you could just contemplate the fact that there is a larger alternative to either of those, a more tender, shaky kind of place where you could live.

Pema Chödrön

With the tender shakiness of spring beginning, exuberant yet still tentative, may we  take courage for our own tender hearts! How can we live in that open space between right and wrong?