A Prayer Answered

If you have ever lost someone you love, you will know that it sucks the life out of you.

 

Standing at the shore, I let my heart break. The pieces fell hard and wave after wave picked up a piece and took it away. Completely centred, I stilled myself more, allowing the feelings to come and the waves to go.

 

Softly, the tears fell. Softly too, the waves came in perfect rhythm.    

 

My prayer that morning was a simple one :  I asked that the same one that made the waves, the same one that made my sad heart, would hold my mother in tenderness as she traveled back “home”. She had just passed away and the smell of her still followed me everywhere.

 

Looking back at the footprints and with the sound of the waves getting more and more faint, I realised that the prayer was not only about my mother. It was also about me. For me.  I needed her to journey well, so that I could journey well too.  My happiness was contingent on it.

 

Knowing for sure that my prayer was answered, I began to walk back to the boardwalk.  The connectedness I felt to the ocean, its rhythm and the creator of it all was not for me to try and understand in that moment. (Or perhaps ever!)

 

Instead, I bowed my head for a second in gratitude, delighted that there are undoubtedly magical moments and miracles on the most ordinary of days. Indeed when we’re silent and centered, plugging into the rhythm of the divine flow is not only necessary, it is completely instinctive. A rhythm most divine.

 

 

Ask me, I know.

 

© A Heart Full of Stories, 2017

 

Aluta continua, as they say.  Allow me to wish you a million opportunities on the most ordinary of days to plug into the magic and surrender to the rhythm that sustains us all.

Dear Children: This Life is Messy

Dear Children,

 

Yes, this life is messy.

 

One moment you’re getting a gold star for helping your teacher, the next your heart is breaking because your only friend chose someone else for their birthday ring.

 

Yes, crap is hard. I know.

 

And, I know that the books tell you how the hard moments are supposed to make you stronger but gosh, that doesn’t make the pain easier to bear. Right? I know.

 

The little things ARE the big things. They leave a dent, a mark, a stain that you have to live with long after the fall. Right? I know.

 

But, here’s the thing:

I’ll tell you what my own mother taught (not told) me: this life IS indeed messy but it is in that exact messiness that you will find your own unique talents, gifts, strengths. Those moments will reveal to you a survival kit of wisdom that you did not even know came standard with your model.

 

So yes, the “grown ups” around you may not have all the answers you seek, but you do happen to have front row seats to the messiness that is their lives and I assure you, you will learn simply by watching.
Aluta Continua, as they say. This life is indeed messy, but that’s how the rainbows reveal themselves. And rainbows are all around. I know. 

 

© A Heart Full of Stories, 2017  Full copyright and all media rights reserved.

 

(And “grown ups”, we ALL need reminding now and then that we cannot (unfortunately) teach our children that which we are not living every day. Those little eyes and ears are learning everything about this life from watching us. Horror! But yes, that’s a story for another day…The only thing we can do is live honestly, authentically, transparently however “messy” that happens to be)