LIstening with the heart

A beautiful thing happened to me this past weekend.

The past couple of months have been hectic and I have missed my weekly visits to my grandmother, much loved and known by her many grandchildren as 'Mutti'.

Mutti is in a resthome now and her quality of life is not the best. She feels sick a lot and lacks the energy she would like to have, spending much of her time on her bed watching TV.

Today when I arrived to spend some time with her, she tells me she would prefer to close her eyes. This gives me permission to tell the truth too. I tell her I don't feel the best either and would love to join her in a 'closing eyes' visit.

Well, low and behold, as we both close our eyes, her on her bed and me next to her in a chair, I begin to verbally purge everything stuck in my heart. Before I know it all my troubles and woes; my grief, my confusion, my despair and my disappointments.......and  following this, my heartfelt gratitudes for everything wonderful in my life were spewed out on to my beloved Mutti. Relentlessly. Barely a breath taken in between. With both with our eyes closed. Tears streaming down my face as I did this, I felt Mutti's undivided attention as a safe haven, her loving presence was deeply felt, listening patiently and reverently as I continued to pour my heart out to her.

The awe-inspiring power of unconditional love and listening with the heart, not just the brain, hit me like a ton of bricks through this unexpected, yet treasured encounter with my grandmother. I left my visit with Mutti feeling cleansed and regenerated, no longer lugging the weight of the world around, the weight that had unwittingly crept up on me due to an imbalance of 'doing' more than 'being' in the world.

When we get busy we don't notice the important stuff. And that stuff gets stuck. We need to release it, otherwise it turns into symptoms and behaviours we often regret.

I am so grateful for this one person in my life who I feel so accepted and loved by, to the degree that I can spill out the content of  my heart, to my hearts content, and feel reborn all over again.

And I hope you all have a very special person in your life like this too. If not, please find one because they are an invaluable and necessary support, helping you travel the sometimes very tricky tightrope of life in a conscious and intelligent way.

Here's to the power of listening with the WHOLE of ourselves; mind, heart, body and spirit. What a true gift of healing that really is.

Kira :)
Ph. 021 027 18127

PS. The image below is the Chinese Character for the verb 'to listen'.