meet your heart.

In painful times, it can be too tender to meet ourselves by looking inward. To feel into our pain is much harder than to think around it, to feel that we know how to ‘fix’ it. The most black and white approach is to find our inner critic, allowing it to poke, prod and judge ourselves amidst the pain.

After all, the inner critic is tangible, controllable, something we feel we can account for. The pain inside has too many shades of grey, the strokes are too abstract. To sit in the discomfort and unknown, to go inward and meet our wounded inner children, requires far too much nurturing, patience and humility. We are none the less able to rummage through closets, strap on a pair of Nike shoes, buy a bag of popcorn and sit down before a two hour movie at the local cinema in complete awe and wonder. Yet to sit with our painful hearts with that same degree of awe, feels impossible.

What would the heart do if confronted with nothing but your presence? It would sting a little more at first, or maybe it would feel like an unbearable weight. If held for some time, without judgement, it might show you the power of its love. With your hand on top of your chest, in silence, in curiosity, the pain can show you its vulnerability and its great strength. What an authentic gift to resist thinking through your pain, just like the alpha wolf as she observes her cubs. Watching, protecting, and nurturing. 

- B.K. Baker