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?

The Grief of This World

Somedays the news is just too much. I feel my chest contract, my heart hurt and I want to turn away from all the pain that being human can bring. Somedays the stories I bear witness to feel  so painful. I know it has always been so; that to be human is to know pain and joy...but some just seem to be given TOO much pain to bear. And then I see this quote from the Talmud, and I breathe a little easier. Ancient wisdom guides us, once again. Our problems are not new. Just stay the course, the ancient ones tell us. Show up and be present!

"Do not be daunted by the enormity of the world's grief. Do justly, now. Love mercy, now. Walk humbly, now. You are not obligated to complete the work, but neither are you free to abandon it."

The Talmud

Our True Home

To open deeply, as genuine spiritual life requires, we need tremendous courage and strength, a kind of warrior spirit. But the place for this warrior strength is in the heart.

Jack Kornfield

A Path with Heart

 Photo by Jerry Downs

If only we deeply understood the power of the human Heart! We now know, through neurocardiology, and HeartMath, so much more of its' true power. We are learning what the poets and the mystics have always known! Did you know that the electromagnetic field of the heart is 50-60 times more powerful than the field of the brain?

We need to value this heart more.

As Jack says, above, the strength of the heart is the warrior spirit our world needs now.

Breathe in and out of your heart and land here, knowing it is your true home.

The Value of Reaching

I swear I will not dishonor my soul with hatred, but offer myself humbly as a guardian of nature, as a healer of misery, as a messenger of wonder, as an architect of peace.

-Diane Ackerman

This photo, taken by a friend of mine at the first snow fall over in the Eastern Sierra, brings to mind the paintings of the ancient Chinese...the magical mist on the mythical mountain that has appealed to people for eons! And then add to that, the beautifully idealistic quote of Diane Ackerman that aims so high, so lofty in its hope and quest. We must have these aims, we must know by what values we chart our course, AND we must find compassion and understanding over and over again when we fail, which we will inevitably do.
Happy New Year: may we all aim high and be humble when we fall.