Lead With Your Heart

"Lead with your heart; the rest of you will follow."

The Peruvian writer Carlos Castenada wrote in his book The Teachings of Don Juan about following your path in life.

This book records the experiences of an anthropology student who becomes the apprentice of Don Juan, a Yaqui indian "man of knowledge" who is also a shaman.  Don Juan, over a period of five years, teaches the author a little of his knowledge. He teaches through giving his apprentice various hallucinogens (psycho-active plants): peyote, datura, and a mixture of psilocybin mushrooms, genista canariensis, and other plants. Each of these plants has its own way of teaching, its own demands and its own kind. Here is an excerpt: 

"I  say it is useless to waste your life on one path, especially if that path has no heart." 

     "But how do you know when a path has no heart, Don Juan?"

"Before you embark on it you ask the question, Does this path have a
heart? If the answer is no, you will know it, and then you must choose
another path."

    "But how will I know for sure whether a Path has a heart or not?"

Anybody would know that. The trouble is nobody asks the- question; and when a man finally realizes that he has taken a path without a heart the path is ready to kill him. At that point very few men can stop to deliberate, and leave the path."

   "How should I proceed to ask the question properly, Don Juan?"

"Just ask it."

     "I mean, is there a proper method, so I would not lie to myself and
      believe the answer is yes when it really is no?"

"Why would you lie?"

"   "Perhaps because at the moment the path is pleasant and enjoyable."

"That is nonsense. A path without a heart is never enjoyable. You have to work hard even to take it. On the other hand, a path with heart is easy; it does not make you work at liking it."

 We know when we love someone that it brings us joy. Converesly, we know when we have chosen the right path because it is a joyful journey. The path of love makes us strong. Anything else, says Don Juan, weakens us.

These are powerful words to contemplate. Lead with the heart and your journey in love will create a new awareness. The path will be good.

Love After Love

Sometimes when you need it, a song and a poem come along to provide comfort for the painful heartbreak in romance. Confused and puzzled, we stumble upon answers, or we call these meaningful coincidences by it's rightful name: synchronicity.
These two healing works of art, a song and a poem, found me on the same night when I was trying to understand the sorrow of love.

   First the song "Most of the Time" - a beautiful cover of a Bob Dylan gem by Sophie Zelmani.
Bob is mourning the loss of a relationship that for him is not really over. Sophie changes a few words to make us feel the emotional pain and heartache. It is a study in a farewell to love, with lots of regret.

Next, the poem by Derek Walcott called Love After Love reminds us we can recover from the hurt of love.  You can read the poem here, but the meaning has a greater emotional wallop when read by the poet David Whyte.
It is a comforting poem that acknowledges the hurt and the salvation that love brings. The love after love, refers to the need to love yourself again and to a future that will include another love. We never forget our lovers, but the hurt can be forgotten.

"Peel your own image from the mirror"

 I cannot improve upon these comments written about this poem by Elizabeth Gilbert:

"Here in these lines is a small banquet for your soul."

   

Human Love Begins

"Where the myth fails, human love begins. Then we love a human being, not our dream, but a human being with flaws."

Anaïs Nin

Typographic Collage

   This beautiful typographic collage drawing is based on one of Nin’s most timeless insights on love, culled from her many volumes of diaries and her love letters with Henry Miller. I read this quote and understand that when we love, we must be prepared for disappointment and amazement. When we can forgive someone for what they didn't do, we can begin to also love them as a real person, with other priorities.  Love is more than fulfilling each other's needs.
     Take time to appreciate this noble thought by Nin. Then, you can appreciate the gift of love for all that it brings. Our dreams are not flawed, but human beings can be.

Forgetfullness

    The ancient Greeks believed that after we die, our souls are  transported across a river to the afterlife. Every soul is said to receive a choice of rivers to drink from after death.  A drink from  the river  Lethe, will make you forget all your sufferings on earth, and you will not remember your past lives. But you will also forget all your joy and all the times you had love. Would you do it?
    The other river, the Mnemosyne, allows those who drank from it  to remember everything and attain omniscience, but not reincarnation. Which river would you drink from? Does the power of earthly love make you always wish to remember it?

                                                      Sarah McLaughlin - I Will Remember You

Must Love Dogs and ... Dolphins

Until one has loved an animal, a part of one's soul remains unawakened.

Anatole France

 This type of human-animal love recognizes a divine spirit in everyone and everything. These friendships are not romantic, but they lead to a greater understanding of romantic love. Human-animal friendships, especially with dogs, help us with understanding grief, loneliness and happiness. They teach us about our capacity to love unconditionally.

Dogs are great ice breakers, they keep you company and also win you friends. Because of Winn Dixie by Kate DiCamillo tells the story of a lonely little girl called India Opal Buloni. One day, she takes home a stray dog she finds outside a supermarket. She names him Winn-Dixie, the name of the supermarket. Life is definitely better with little Winn-Dixie beside her.

   Here are a list of some "dog stories".

Read an excerpt of the novel Must Love Dogs by Claire Cook here  and watch a trailer of the movie  "Must Love Dogs".  It is a romantic comedy about life after divorce.

To The Rose

That which God said to the rose,
and caused it to laugh in full-blown beauty,
He said to my heart,
and made it a hundred times more beautiful.
Rumi

Gold Medal rose

    Last week I planted a gorgeous yellow rose in my garden. It is called the "Gold Medal"  rose and has beautiful perfumed flowers. When you come close to the rose and bend over its pretty petals, do you hear a sweet laughter? When love enters your heart through your eyes, or through your nose with the fragrance of a flower, or through a word whispered in your ear, we are transformed into something more beautiful. Imagine you are the rose. Imagine someone says something to you that makes you more beautiful. 

   Robert Burns, a Scottish poet and lyricist, wrote:

O my Luve's like a red, red rose,
That's newly sprung in June:
O my Luve's like the melodie,
That's sweetly play'd in tune. 

     When we love, we become something more beautiful than we were. We hear melodies that are soft and sweet like a rose.
 If we could look into our hearts, like Rumi did, we would see a rose even more beautiful than that pictured above. All living things, Rumi appears to be saying, are transformed by love.
When your heart is transformed by love you can see a red, blue, or a gold rose.

Love Is Blind

The Lovers

The Lovers is a painting by Belgian surrealist Rene Magritte, created in 1928. 

"The painting depicts a veiled couple embracing and kissing. Obviously symbolic, many have speculated about why the couple is veiled. Many have also interpreted the painting in different ways – the common interpretation being 'Love is blind'."

Do you have any opinions about the meaning of the painting? 

The Lovers can be viewed at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City.

After her first husband was killed in a motorcycle accident, a woman told me, "for her second marriage, it didn't matter what he looked like, as long as he was good with her kids."
The white shrouds, that hide the faces of these lovers, seem to me to also symbolize that love survives even death.

The couple press into each other for "Just A Kiss" ( on your lips in the moonlight?)
Watch a living video of The Lovers. The film is a moving tribute to the mystery of love.