"There is great power in the broken heart."
-- Clarissa Pinkola Estes, Ph.D.
In writing my book, Resplendent In Rags, I wrestled with how and why I abandoned my heart in Chinatown Salinas: but more -- although not in so many words -- how it was that I was yet living in the abandonment of the Holy One: gifted with a Beloved and three exquisite children, I nevertheless took in the dark breath of the broken heart...
Truly, and truly again, as both the Tao and the Gospel increasingly make evident to me, time is not a straight line forward: time never truly passes... rather, to the degree that we wrestle open the remnants of our hearts, we will see that to live, among other things, means that we become gatherers of time... I have now gathered an abundance of time... and the dark breath of the broken heart is the simple will to keep to the path of loving...
It has been said by many now, that we are all living in the post truth era: an era, a time, in which truth is not held by all in reverence and as a core value in faith, in politics, and in our culture as a whole. Entire segments of our population relish alternative facts. No longer can it be said that you are entitled to your own opinion, but not to your own facts. Any one of us, or every one of us, is now "free" to construct his or her own reality: and objective, demonstrable, truth be damned... And when millions of people of faith adopt such a terrifying belief system, what hell cannot be justified?
As a gatherer of time, with the amount of time already gathered likely much more than the time yet to be gathered, I have something to say: and perhaps something in these words might be of use to you... such is my hope... Here goes: It matters not if you believe in Jesus of Nazareth (the one I refer to as Yeshua the Poet), but what really matters is whether you might consider the state of the world, and the fractured state of the United States... Is it likely that more of the same will change the course of things? Is it likely that a continued radical commitment to alternative facts will increase anyone's reverence for truth?
If you are a person of faith and also a patriot: you must not only refuse to lie, but you must actively insist upon truth... 100% of the time! Next, and this is equally important to truth, you must begin to live in such a way that if you were to be arrested for loving-in-action, there would be evidence to convict you! Perhaps the one, the most essential, teaching of That Man, Jesus, would be "Love one another as I have loved you."
Do you want to justify yourself: your religion and your politics? Okay: read what Jesus had to say to the justifiers of his day: read the Beatitudes, Matthew 5: 1 - 11... you know, all the "blessed are" lines... And if you can't accept the hints that the Beatitudes give, go ahead and turn to Matthew 25: 31 - 46... here we are presented with the Works of Mercy, Peace, and Justice... "I was hungry and you fed me" is all the summary that we need to courageously and truthfully critique every system or opinion or deceit or manipulation of power!
Right here: right here in this exact place: is the dark breath of the broken heart. For it is in the broken heart that love is known for the harsh and dreadful thing that it is (Dostoevsky and Dorothy Day): when one's heart has been broken open, with the prideful ego dripping out, one has the option of choosing do I close down or do I grow evermore expansive!? It hurts to simply abide in loving: it hurts because absolutely everything could change in just one minute if we were all to simply love every other as Jesus would...
Who among us will take responsibility for the condition of their heart and whether or not we are setting it free to always be love-in-action? It does seem to me, as a gatherer of time, that this is the one essential question, as it is the bridge for the recovery of our potential for community and human being... Oh, and if you are wondering as to why the picture of Frida Kahlo to accompany this blog-of-ponderations, I think of her as the Patron Saint of Broken Hearts (Who Keep On Loving)...
-- Clarissa Pinkola Estes, Ph.D.
In writing my book, Resplendent In Rags, I wrestled with how and why I abandoned my heart in Chinatown Salinas: but more -- although not in so many words -- how it was that I was yet living in the abandonment of the Holy One: gifted with a Beloved and three exquisite children, I nevertheless took in the dark breath of the broken heart...
Truly, and truly again, as both the Tao and the Gospel increasingly make evident to me, time is not a straight line forward: time never truly passes... rather, to the degree that we wrestle open the remnants of our hearts, we will see that to live, among other things, means that we become gatherers of time... I have now gathered an abundance of time... and the dark breath of the broken heart is the simple will to keep to the path of loving...
It has been said by many now, that we are all living in the post truth era: an era, a time, in which truth is not held by all in reverence and as a core value in faith, in politics, and in our culture as a whole. Entire segments of our population relish alternative facts. No longer can it be said that you are entitled to your own opinion, but not to your own facts. Any one of us, or every one of us, is now "free" to construct his or her own reality: and objective, demonstrable, truth be damned... And when millions of people of faith adopt such a terrifying belief system, what hell cannot be justified?
As a gatherer of time, with the amount of time already gathered likely much more than the time yet to be gathered, I have something to say: and perhaps something in these words might be of use to you... such is my hope... Here goes: It matters not if you believe in Jesus of Nazareth (the one I refer to as Yeshua the Poet), but what really matters is whether you might consider the state of the world, and the fractured state of the United States... Is it likely that more of the same will change the course of things? Is it likely that a continued radical commitment to alternative facts will increase anyone's reverence for truth?
If you are a person of faith and also a patriot: you must not only refuse to lie, but you must actively insist upon truth... 100% of the time! Next, and this is equally important to truth, you must begin to live in such a way that if you were to be arrested for loving-in-action, there would be evidence to convict you! Perhaps the one, the most essential, teaching of That Man, Jesus, would be "Love one another as I have loved you."
Do you want to justify yourself: your religion and your politics? Okay: read what Jesus had to say to the justifiers of his day: read the Beatitudes, Matthew 5: 1 - 11... you know, all the "blessed are" lines... And if you can't accept the hints that the Beatitudes give, go ahead and turn to Matthew 25: 31 - 46... here we are presented with the Works of Mercy, Peace, and Justice... "I was hungry and you fed me" is all the summary that we need to courageously and truthfully critique every system or opinion or deceit or manipulation of power!
Right here: right here in this exact place: is the dark breath of the broken heart. For it is in the broken heart that love is known for the harsh and dreadful thing that it is (Dostoevsky and Dorothy Day): when one's heart has been broken open, with the prideful ego dripping out, one has the option of choosing do I close down or do I grow evermore expansive!? It hurts to simply abide in loving: it hurts because absolutely everything could change in just one minute if we were all to simply love every other as Jesus would...
Who among us will take responsibility for the condition of their heart and whether or not we are setting it free to always be love-in-action? It does seem to me, as a gatherer of time, that this is the one essential question, as it is the bridge for the recovery of our potential for community and human being... Oh, and if you are wondering as to why the picture of Frida Kahlo to accompany this blog-of-ponderations, I think of her as the Patron Saint of Broken Hearts (Who Keep On Loving)...
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