Opening a sacred space in the heart

After a long gray month, sunny skies have returned to the Northwest, and the California poppies, closed up for so long, have now opened to welcome in the light -- and I find that opening has echoes in my own heart.

Richard Rohr, in one of his appendices to Immortal Diamond, talks about the Sacred Heart; about how dropping into his heart space "makes it almost impossible to comment, judge, create story lines, or remain antagonistic."  I think I can say the same: if, when under stress, I can close my eyes and drop my attention into my heart, I can feel it opening, slowing down, even skipping a beat or two, and a warmth steals over me that softens whatever is troubling me.

It's a little bit like that leap of heart I used to get as a young girl, when I'd accidentally encounter a boy I was crushing on. So it's easier now to understand that that happy place within is somehow akin to love, and that it is love -- always -- that heals the wounded or troubled soul...