“We could never have guessed…We were blessed…Where we are…”
~James Taylor
Mark Nepo tells the story of the woman and the sponge. A woman, seeking an answer, found a sponge. The sponge was folded and hardened, and in the folds was a message. She took the dried sponge to the sea, waded in waist deep, and watched it unfold under the water. She began to see bubbles appear as the secret of life became visible to her. A small fish, trapped in sleep in the hardened sponge, came to life and swam out to sea. From that day on, no matter where she went, she held the image of the little fish swimming, peaceful, and free.
I think this story holds great wisdom, when looked at from the perspective of our hearts. We all hold hurt in our hearts. And with each experience of pain, each wrong done to us that we hold onto, our hearts harden, like a sponge with no water. We get to adulthood with a crusty little squeezed-out heart, and no person, no matter how kind or well intentioned, can get in.
Everything remains hard and compressed until, like the woman, waist deep in the ocean, we take our sleeping heart in our hands and plunge it tenderly into the life we are living.
Opening our hearts is an inside job. Today, hold the image of your heart softening inside you, like a sponge opening in warm water. For extra credit, practice this image when someone is disagreeable, or unkind.
