Remember Valentine’s Day when you were in grade school? Remember how your small circle of friends suddenly opened to include …well, everyone whose name you knew? That was an early experience of spacious heart, a time when you moved beyond seeing walls and opened a window to see clouds and sky and a “beyond” for which you had no name.
Last week, I read and saw more about Haiti and the losses her people are struggling to endure. In my travels across the internet, it is amazing and heartening to see how many people are talking about Haiti, caring about Haiti, and offering help for Haiti. So many hearts are open.
Right here at the Café, I read about the people living on the Cheyenne River and Standing Rock Reservations, now in a state of emergency—more need and more hearts opening. And a drive downtown in my city, your city, and really any large city in this country reveals more need.
How in this world do you and I find the spacious heart we need to live justly and compassionately?
As artists we make art that reflects how we might grow from small heart to spacious heart. We tear down walls and create landscapes that push the imagination “out there.” Art becomes a lens, forming new and wider images in the heart.
We send Valentines. We form partnerships to distribute our Valentines and in so doing, journey on toward spacious heart. In the spirit of that spacious heart, I wish you all a happy Valentine’s Day, a beautiful day of no walls, of reaching for that “beyond” for which we still have no name. And …
Happy Valentine’s Day to Episcopal Relief & Development for helping create a path to spacious heart.
Seen above (and at Cafe masthead): “Heaven’s Gate” by Robert Epley. Seen above (inset and at Daily Episcopalian and Speaking to the Soul mastheads) “Love’s Blessing” by Conne Backus-Yoder