Last week on the beach I looked down beside my chair and there sat the most perfect heart shaped stone I’d ever seen. It was tiny, which made it perfect touch-stone size. It also has a slight indentation on one side that perfectly fits my thumb. I like to think of the indentation as the softening of a hard heart, opening up to vulnerability.
How many times have we heard “Be honest with yourself”? I, myself, have heard it many times, but never quite caught the true meaning. Being honest with oneself means remaining vulnerable. I know it seems easier to stay closed off behind a hard heart, but in reality, it isn’t. Softening to vulnerability opens us up to feel pain, but along with pain comes true joy kept out of a hard heart.
Quick story:
Two friends, Bill and Tim went hiking. Bill froze his water, Tim didn’t. When the time of extreme thirst came, Bill drank what little water had melted and was left with a large ice chunk in his bottle. All Tim had was a bottle of very warm water. Bill offered Tim his ice, but first he had to work awhile to crack the ice into small pieces to get it out of the bottle. This was taking a long time. He finally realized the best way was to let Tim pour his warm water over the ice chunk and let Tim drink his water out of his bottle.
Moral:
When you have time, let cold things thaw,
When time is short, receive warm things,
and only when necessary break the hard things remaining and pray like hell you can pass the pieces.
If we let things in we can share more easily than if we keep breaking things apart to get them out.
Everyday I take my stone with me on my jog around the block. As my thumb feels the indent, I pray as I move, for vulnerability, softening, peace, and joy.
And so, as another day goes by, I believe all hearts of stone have a slight indent, and….I have written.
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