Feel with the Heart

The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched.  They must be felt with the heart.  —Helen Keller

I love the mountains.  I could spend weeks sitting under a tree in the mountains with a stack of good books.  The peaceful setting of the mountains, the beauty around me, the songs of the birds, the warmth of the sun on my face, the fragrance of the pines, the taste of mountain spring water—these are all things that make me happy.  I am equally at peace at the ocean.  There is something powerful and magnificent about the ocean that makes me feel small in the universe—not an easy thing for a large woman.  As gorgeous as this earth is, the real beauty is felt with the heart.

via prydain.wikia.com

A few years back I had the unpleasant task of climbing into an MRI machine for a scan.  I don’t do well in enclosed spaces, so I was not looking forward to the experience.  As they began to move me into the machine, instinct took over.  My mind began to silently sing happy tunes, and as I closed my eyes, it took me to my favorite waterfall tucked deep into Woodfords Canyon, California.  Then I traveled to the redwood forest in Northern California, and on to the ocean beach in San Simeon, California.  I don’t know how long I was in the MRI machine, but long enough for me to experience a wonderful evening under the stars with my grandfather in Washoe Valley, Nevada.

You see, my mind took me to these places because my heart had experienced their beauty—not just my eyes, ears, nose, mouth, and sense of touch.  My heart had experienced lovely memories in these places; sometimes alone with my thoughts and prayers; sometimes with others.  On that day of the MRI, the memories were even more beautiful than the places themselves.

Love is like that.  Love can be experienced, and indeed, was divinely created to be experienced by all the senses—but it is never really experienced until it is experienced with the heart.  It is the heart that makes love beautiful.  Giving service freely to another, with no thought of oneself, expecting nothing in return, with 100 percent commitment, puts heart into a relationship.  That’s when love can truly be felt.

I suppose our modest little home on our tiny narrow street in what my adult children lovingly call the ghetto (it’s not really) might not be beautiful to many people.  The house was built in 1949, when houses were built with great speed to accommodate post war needs.  If you measure the width of the bathroom wall at the base of the bathtub, and then measure the width of the same wall at the ceiling, you’ll find it is a full inch wider near the ceiling.  (I discovered this many years ago trying to install a tub wall kit.)

At the time, it caused me more than a little distress, but now I “heart” that wall.  Three bathroom remodels later, I’ve learned exactly how to accommodate for that one-inch idiosyncrasy.  I have mastered it.  I’ve not only learned to control my emotions about it, but I’ve learned to use that little carpentry error to develop my own carpentry skills.  Just as giving service develops love that can be felt, controlling my emotional outburst at my bathroom developed love for my home that can be felt.

Maybe the most beautiful things on the earth are not really tangible.  We think of beauty as something seen with our eyes, but maybe it’s not.  Maybe beauty is a lifetime of experiences, adventures, and learning.  I suppose even failure is part of beauty.  I know that first bathtub kit was a failure, but look how that turned out.  My failure made me a better carpenter—and maybe a better person by forcing me to control my emotions.

Sometimes we avoid feeling things with our heart because we don’t want to be hurt.  We build walls around ourselves and dig in deep.  When someone begins chipping away at our walls, we quickly cement the broken pieces and fortify ourselves.  How sad this is.  If we don’t allow our tender hearts to be exposed, and sometimes to be broken, we don’t have the experiences, adventures, and learning opportunities that allow our hearts to see the beauty around us.  We don’t experience good memories.  We never feel love.

Life is to be experienced with the heart.  Tear down the walls and feel life.  If you don’t feel life, you are missing it.  You are missing the beauty.  You are throwing away the most beautiful part of life.  Live your life; don’t just go through your life.  Put your heart into it.  Be willing to experience the good with the bad, because it is the bad that makes the good sweet.  Feel your life with your heart.

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