Opening the Heart
Perhaps the simplest way to look at life is a journey, or a trip. Literally, that’s what it is. We’re traveling on the planet Earth through space at a rate of 67,000 miles per hour as it orbits the sun. Multiply that distance times 24 hours, then times 365 days, and that equates to 587,463,120 miles (945,430,247 km) each year. To complicate things, the planet is rotating on its axis at a speed of just over 1,000 miles/hr at the equator.
Dizzying, eh?
It’s remarkable to realize all this movement, all this journeying, is happening all the time, generally without our awareness. We are bonafied space travelers, though we don’t seem to know it. There is a corollary in the fact that we are already bonafied human spirits, literally, spiritual beings in human form, and we don’t seem to know that either. We think we’re the form trying to qualify to be immortal spirits, not understanding that we’re already what we think we’re trying to become.
During classical antiquity — from earliest Greek poetry 8th-7th Century BC through the rise in Christianity, fall of the Western Roman Empire, and the close of Late Antiquity 500-600 A.D. — we thought the earth was flat, and anyone who sailed off into the sunset would actually be going over the edge. Then, a few brave souls went to “the edge” only to discover that it wasn’t there. The Portuguese mariner, Ferdinand Magellan was the first to lead an expedition to circumnavigate the planet by sea. Although he did not survive the full journey, dying in the Battle of Mactan in the Philippines, his expedition did.
From what we now know, the earth had already traveled around the sun roughly 4.6 billion times by the time “flat earth theory” is acknowledged to have started. For all we know, many other civilizations may have existed on earth; rising, flourishing, and fading into oblivion or cataclysm, before the rise of our current one. Before the civilizations of Sumer (3500-2334 BC), Egypt (3200-343 BC), Indus Valley (3700-1700 BC), and China (7000 BC), before Stonehenge (4500 BC), there remain persistent stories of other civilizations, particularly, of Atlantis, first mentioned by Plato, and Lemuria. Yet, even these go back only 10,000 years or so.
We were spirits in human form then too.
We’ve learned quite a bit over the past 10,000 years, but the rate of acceleration of knowledge and understanding has been on the rise. The concept of equality, which was a core philosophy in the formation of the United States, but was not immediately put into practice, is yet becoming the rule today, instead of the exception.
The concept of human spirituality and beingness, spoken of in abstract for generations in many religious traditions, has yet to begin becoming the rule, rather than the exception, though I feel that said beginning is at hand. It’s simple when we accept as fact, the idea that there can be no human form without an indwelling spirit.
With this understanding we can begin learning about who we are, then assuming and demonstrating the natural, inherent, and implicit equality that has been ours all along, and is ours right now. This doesn’t mean that our lives will become the same, or that we will look or speak the same. It does mean that we’ll make our choices with a healthier self-awareness, based on what’s happening inside where our spirit is centered, rather than outside factors. In this way, outside factors will change according to the Will of our Heart.
Human spirituality is not about being “holy” or “holier than”… it’s simply about being. When we want to take it up a notch, it is about being our best… envisioning the best for one’s self, and for all. Loving self, and all. We choose to do this, not because God demands it, but because life is a better experience when we do. Life is better when we are in harmony than in dissonance. Life is better when we are in health rather than dis-ease. Life is better when we feel safe rather than at risk. We can create a better life when we embrace a better view of who we are, and the friends and neighbors with whom we make this magnificent journey.
It is possible that many civilizations have come and gone in the 4+ billion times the earth has circled the sun. The planet itself has logged quite a few miles on its odometer. Yet even today, its movement is quiet, relatively speaking, barely perceptible except by the movements of the sun and moon in their daily and seasonal journeys across the sky. And who knows how far the sun has traveled, for you can bet it hasn’t been sitting still all this time.
We have an opportunity to learn more about who we are when we’re ready. I say “we” in the collective sense, but it’s really about “you” and “me” as individuals. We are each lord over that which enters our minds, as allowed through an open or closed heart.
A closed mind yields no new ideas, offers no new perceptions of possibility, even when new possibilities may be sorely needed and even available for the embracing. A closed heart, however, yields no new energy, no new power, life, or love. How many people do you know who are feeling powerless, lifeless, or without love? Each has power, life, and love within them, but they are not giving this wonderful gift to themselves by channeling it through harmonious, cooperative endeavor with others.
An open heart can open a mind, but an open mind alone will not open a heart. Choosing to love opens the heart to love, and in the process, to power, life and living. Choosing to love opens the mind to new knowledge, exercising and applying our intelligence toward our highest goals and visions.
The heart is the gateway to growth, through love and in positive ways, even if our path takes us through tough times and negative places. It gives us the power to walk through any adversity, facing our fears, with confidence and grace, leaving the sweet vibration of harmony in our wake. That’s who we are, if we choose to be.
Here’s to an awakening, each and every day.
WOW!!!
Thank you Desiree for stopping by, and the kind thoughts. Let us both see our grand dreams come to fruition.
Beautiful post and a most interesting blog!