Heart Opener

My heart was so heavy it felt like I was lying in the dentist chair with one of those lead aprons on. Not my favorite place to be. Thankfully, I was in a much better place. At the yoga studio, in the flow of the morning’s practice, something broke free. My heart expanded as we moved and meditated on this,

 from Psalm 18: 16 – 19:

But he caught – reached all the way from sky to sea; he pulled me out

of the ocean of hate, that enemy chaos,

the void in which I was drowning.

They hit me when I was down,

but God stuck by me,

He stood me up on a wide-open field; I stood there saved – surprised to be loved!

(google image)

During the hour of heart openers a dream was recalled. The dream was representative of what the morning’s practice was inviting me to  -body, mind, soul and spirit - a more expansive place.  The dream found me in a Plexiglas cube tangled up with a bittersweet vine. The vine was growing at a tremendous rate and crowding me out until I was trapped in a tiny corner with no room to breathe. As it pressed against me the pain was great. Panic was setting in. Suddenly, at the last possible moment, before I was crushed under its weight and entangling branches, the intense pressure building up BURST open the cube and I tumbled out as the vine sprung out and shook with great trembling. Seeds scattered. They were seeds of contempt. The root was exposed and it was recognized as the root of bitterness. Together, they had bound me up and restrained me. In that moment of new awareness, with loving-kindness, I saw all the bitterness, all the contempt strewn like ripe seeds and berries of a bittersweet vine. As they scattered, these seeds were transformed into seeds of compassion. I was transformed and transported to an expansive place of love. Love for self. Love for others. Love for God. Why would that be a surprising place to find myself in?

 I've been there before....                                                                        May it be so for you.