Season of Love, Season of the Heart

Valentine’s Day is generally thought of as a day for Lover’s to celebrate. But it can be a celebration that pulls in much wider territory than that. It is a wonderful time of year to pause and reflect on the fundamental importance of the heart – the singular symbol of Valentine’s Day – in everything we are and everything we do.

We greatly value the intellect and education in our culture, but we pay very little attention to the source of creativity and power that is the true impetus behind all remarkable accomplishments. The most important endeavors of our lives are fueled by the heart, not by the intellect, and not by the physical body. The mind and the body are merely tools of the spirit, and what fuels and directs how we use them is the passionate belief in life itself.

We experience greater success, greater happiness and a more profound sense of peace in all that we do when our hearts, in tune with the Spirit, embrace the process itself with passion and faith. This is quite the opposite of “willpower.”  Willpower implies a harsh discipline, a stoic straining towards something, a mental choice.

Embracing something, on the other hand, implies an expansion of the heart, a joyous and faith-filled exuberance that unleashes spiritual energy into the endeavor — whatever it is, whether raising a child, working at a job, volunteering at a shelter or being a care-giver for a loved one.

Embracing means to act “in love.”  It doesn’t seek to control the situation or change it. Embracing seeks to give whole-heartedly —  not half-heartedly — of self in whatever we are called to do or create or be. – Syndie Eardly