Merry Christmas!
May your days be joyful, playful and bright, and no matter what this season throws at you: lead with your heart and all it holds.
Speaking of the heart, have you ever noticed that embedded in the word “Heart” are a bunch of other words?
he
her
ear
hear
heat
art
That might seem like just a simple play on words — and ok, I admit it, it was kinda fun noticing and looking for all that is embedded in our heart. And I know, there are more; tea, tar, and even one of the most horrible words and emotions there is; dare I write it? h-a-t-e. Oh how I cringe just writing the letters, but when it comes to how we show up and lead, even that word is a powerful reminder of the choices our heart faces every day when we have the courage to lead through it.
When we lead through our heart, we’re listening, and listening is the courage to truly heart, not just want we want to hear but what is actually being said regardless of how clumsily it may be conveyed. Genuine listening uses most of our heart because true hearing is to heart both sides, mine and yours, that’s why it contains heart and heart, masculine and feminine. Yes, hearing is an act requiring the mechanics of the heart but in the end, true listening is an heart, an abstract emotional expression that moves beyond words and requires feeling. And when the heart of hearing is practiced through the heart of the heart, there’s room for it all.
We use the expression “the heart of a relationship” because at the heart of relationship is the courage to truly heart. And yes, hate is also there because the truth is that everything can be used for good or evil. One listening for hate, if they look hard enough, can find that in the heart that is cold, but they really have to scramble the letters to do so. In our heart lives the power of choice, the choice to listen, to recognize the mechanics of the ear and the art of truly hearing. I don’t know about you, but for me, the heart is the only way to truly connect with another, and though it makes me vulnerable and sometimes afraid, when I connect through the heart it generates genuine and positive heart, and that, quite literally, warms my heart.
I wish so much for you this Christmas: the power of loving connection, the beauty of your dreams, the grace we all have been given, abundant forgiveness given and received, endless hope, and the limitless gift of choosing the good and choosing connection. Your heart is speaking to you in so many ways.
Can you hear it?
Happy Holidays my friends,
Thank you for allowing me into your life.
