Listen To Your Heart

You know the saying - Listen to your heart? I think that’s good advice. I mean, listen to the part of your heart that is vulnerable, open to wonder. What is my heart saying? When did I hear from it last? The heart is not like the mind — all analytical and reasoning. The heart, I believe, is more intuitive. It’s not demanding and can be easily overlooked. It is, in fact, often overlooked. It gets buried in responsibilities, expectations, and various to-do lists. Sometimes, it gets so buried that it needs to be arrested by something tender, or startled by something beautiful, something majestic in scope. Then, the heart takes a deep breath and says, “Why, here I am. Where have I been all this time?”

The heart tells us so many things if we listen. What does your heart say about a night sky filled with shooting stars or a wide prairie sea of waving grass? How about a jagged, jutting outline of mountain rock, tinged pink with the color of a setting sun?

What does your heart say about your spouse and your history together, the adventures and heartaches while walking the same road, day after day?

What about your children, fresh and innocent, ready to be surprised by anything and everything? Or, that grandparent so frail now, but still carrying remnants of things learned from a life lived long.

And what does my heart tell me about my first grandchild, Violet Hope? My heart has a wealth of things to tell me about this one year-old, precious gift from God. When visiting my son and daughter-in-law this past Christmas, we all went to the San Diego Safari Park to see colored lights synchronized to Christmas music. There was a castle there with a moat in front and two pelicans swimming back and forth like crazy looking sentinels.

The night was dark as white, blue and purple lights flashed across the castle to Alan Jackson’s song, ‘Let It Be Christmas.’ I stood on a wooden bridge and held my sweet Violet as she watched the lights, smiling and clapping her hands. And just like that, from out of nowhere, my heart started to swell with a song that had no words. No words were needed. It was just love. Pure love. Tears came to my eyes as I thought of the many things I’m learning, unbidden and unasked, from this little life.

There are many treasures the heart can reveal if we take the time to listen.