Sometimes clouds have silver linings

Did you know that the heart of a woman only weighs about eight ounces?

I didn’t.

It wasn’t until I recently checked ‘Google University’ that I learned the facts.

I was sure mine weighed more like 10 lbs—stone heavy and sinkable.

I’ve been away, caring for that part of me.

Thanks in part to my friend Don (who is wise beyond words and who also knows how to put caring words together) I am back, sitting in front of my keyboard.

Don told me to “just start writing,” which if you’ve noticed I haven’t been doing for a few weeks. The empty page syndrome happens to me sometimes, especially when my book of life falls off the shelf and I go underground to my silent place where I spend time picking up my pages.

Eventually I had to come back to the light when I realized, as Don pointed out through Ralph Waldo Emerson that I, too, do not want to have any “unspent youth” left within me when my time is up.

Time to get back on the horse of life and “ride, baby ride.”

My heart is making a come back to her old self again, though when I run my hand over the space she takes up thumping in my chest, I imagine I can feel the small break lines that have been opened up on her surface.

But these aren’t wounds. They’re channels where new life lessons and gratitude can flow in and take their turn helping with growth.

Thanks to Don’s reflections, I also have added a new book to my reading list—“No Ordinary Moments,” written by Dan Millman. It will be really good stuff.

The first book I read as I was growing up and into a conscious human being was “The Road Less Travelled” by M. Scott Peck. I was 18 years old at the time, the book had just been published and it had a big impact on me.

Peck began the book with the sentence, “Life is difficult.” He went on to explain that once we truly understand and accept this great truth, the fact that life is difficult no longer matters.

I’ve never forgotten that first read and yet I’ve sometimes forgotten that it is true.

And I’ve more or less tried to live by Peck’s “Road Less Travelled” principles throughout my life, but that doesn’t mean—as I am reminded—that everything along the road is simple to learn or to accept.

Simple is what my new kitten’s view on life is like—and I’m taking notes.  Eat, sleep, take a run up the kitchen curtains and back down again, and then cuff the stuffing out of a toy mouse and then toss it into the owner’s boot when she’s not looking.

What a way to re-focus on the present moment when I put my foot into my boot at 8 a.m. and feel a furry under my toes. Simply a laughable moment (after the squeal.)

This much I know is true for me. Everything happens for a reason and I would not trade one moment of my most recent journey for a different story. I have had the adventure of a lifetime and I loved every minute of it.

And yes Don, bless your heart, life does go on. Stay tuned!