While Thanksgiving has come and gone yet again, the practice of gratitude that nourishes my daily life remains. As does my deep caring and compassion for an ever widening circle of life.
For many years when I was younger I was mostly oblivious to those beyond my immediate friends and family. I was also largely cut off from any depth of awareness and experience of connection and intimacy within myself and with others. Experiences in my childhood had taught me that it was not safe to trust and to be in the world in an open-hearted and vulnerable way. And out of that fear arose walls that I had unconsciously built around my heart. Many of us do this.
Gratefully, and after many years of being on a path of healing and gradually letting go of my protective armor, today I am able to understand what Thích Nhất Hạnh meant when he stated that "we are here to awaken from the illusion of our separateness." I also hold deep appreciation for the wisdom of John Muir who said, "When one tugs at a single thing in nature, he finds it attached to the rest of the world." Indigenous peoples are also among those who have long understood how it is that we are all connected and all related.
With each passing year I am mindful of shedding yet more layers of disconnection, fear, shame, separateness, illusions, ignorance, and inner and outer isolation. As these shifts continue, my perspectives also continue to evolve and grow more expansive. I get it how the ripples we send out into the world truly matter. Our smiles matter. Befriending ourselves and opening to grief and gratitude matters. Listening to the Earth matters. Looking into the eyes of the homeless person on the street corner rather than turning away matters. Mindfulness and breathing and vulnerability matters. Growing our heart muscles stronger and stronger matters so that we can allow into our being the immensity of the beauty, love, joy, and sacredness of life and the depth of the pain that we may carry along with our other human brothers and sisters and that of other beings.
E.E. Cummings was absolutely right on when he said that it takes a lot of courage to grow up and become who we truly are. It takes courage to be vulnerable, to be conscious, to experience love and loss, and to be in our bodies consciously with our eyes and hearts open.
This Thanksgiving brought me to a new place of envisioning a more expansive way of honoring and blessing and giving thanks. This vision is inclusive, excluding no one. While abundance is woven through my life, there are so many who do not have that experience. All I had to do was drive to our oldest son's home for the holiday celebration and see the tents of those who do not even have a home. And my heart weeps. Because today my heart is open. And each year that I grow older, my heart opens even that much more.
While I do not know what the future will hold for myself, my loved ones, and life on this beautiful Earth Mother we share, I have these glimpses into what is possible. And it seems that those possibilities for a world which cares for all begins with each and every one of us rooting into a path of heart, whatever that may look like, and experiencing ever greater compassion for ourselves and for other beings. Because we are indeed all related, all connected, all matter.
Radhule Weininger, MD, PhD. wrote a beautiful book called Heartwork: The Path of Self-Compassion - 9 Practices For Opening the Heart. Here is a "heart that cares for all" practice or prayer excerpted from her book that feels deeply appropriate and needed in these times...
May all beings be happy.
May all beings be safe.
May all beings be free.
May my longing be to contribute to the
well-being and freedom of others.
May I receive the support to make this happen.
May wisdom, compassion, and abundant
generosity manifest in my actions.
Bless us all ― Molly
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