Living In The Freshest Chamber Of The Heart

 "Thank you for coming up this way for my procedure.  My heart is feeling really groovy.  I feel like I have 100,000 more miles in me. Regards,  Steve "
This week's reading  made me immediately think of my little brother Steve!  Earlier this month my sister Vicki and I picked up my brother at his home in Escanaba, MI and took him to Marquette for a cardiac procedure to correct his Supravantricular Tachycardia.  Having had this from birth, he was always mindful of his heart intermittently and randomly beating out of his chest.  For a life time, he he did nothing about it.  Fear of doctors, hospitals, needles, medication (in addition to a multitude of other irrational fears) kept my brother from any form of preventative health care.  Well, to make a long story short, my dad almost died this past summer.  (I, too, had to get him to the hospital to correct his "electrical" cardiac problem).  Dad, today, (at 83) is brand new!  Steve, upon seeing Dad go from "death to life" with one (God monitored) procedure, mustered up courage and hope enough to seek help!  Steve is FINALLY living in the freshest chamber of his heart !  
PS.  Mom and Dad just stopped by to visit a bit.  Among things shared, they had to tell me that for the past two Sundays (since the "miracle") Steve went to church!  He is running again (even in the cold and icy pavement!).  Thanks be to God!  Amen

 Wow. Powerful. Living in the freshest chamber of the heart means living in the present not the past. <3 Yes! Last night I participated as a "Giver" in a Tantra Puja ritual with 30 people. We rotated from partner to partner giving the gift of being fully present as we symbolically and ritually shared opening up the heart. One of my favorite rituals was pouring water from a vessel into a small conch shell, then placing a drop of two on the pointer finger and thumb and with the finger, gently tracing a tear from the outside of the eye down the cheek to chin. This tear represented for the Receiver all the tears they either could not or were not allowed to shed. It was deeply moving. We then placed a satin piece of cloth over our fingers and with one finger gently wiped the tears away. As I sat there in the Giver role, I allowed my heart to be fully open to any hurt of the Receiver, to silently say, "you are enough. It is allowed to cry. You are allowed to feel. Open your heart." It felt so nurturing to nurture and be there fully. I was able to recognize my own tears sometimes not allowed to be shed, and to be fully present too. Deeply powerful experience. The challenge for me was not being able to hug the person. <3

I do my best to stay in the freshest chamber, knowing each encounter is different and new and that although the past may inform me, it does not define me. <3 What helps me is reminding myself that all of live is a story, a narrative we each create And so I can choose, daily to live in the present chamber of the heart rather than dwell in the past. The new story can be created each day <3 

 How to live in the present fully is a challenge for almost all of us.  We all have past, the old heart chamber, filled with aches and pains and suffering. In my opinion no human being can escape  from suffering. Our challenge is how to live fully in the freshest chamber of our heart, not to be broken by the past suffering and live fully in the present.
In order to live in the freshest chamber of our heart, we need to let go of the past by resolving it, letting it go and learning from it.We use these past learnings as the other chambers of the heart to stay afloat and love again like a fresh start.We do not deny the past but we say good bye to it to say hello to the present. We nned to feel in order to heal.

I have gone through heart braking and heart aching experiences while going through the journey of my life. I lost my dear wife who was with me for  some sixty plus years. When she passed away six years ago, I had aches and pains in my heart.  I felt life empty  and hollow.I found it  very difficult to bear this big loss. I let my pain come mindfully and let it go without denying it, ignoring it or getting stuck with it.Going through my pain mindfully gave me strength for living more fully in the present. Mark Nepo's last statement deeply resonates with me:" Only by living in the freshest chamber of the heart can we love again and again for the first time." What a blessing! Namaste.