| The path of the heart is not a spiritual | | | | There is no one in the world who is less in |
| technique or way, it is life itself leading | | | | need of love, only those who seem to be. |
| each of us to a greater understanding and | | | | There is no one whose inner being can truly |
| experience of what love is and what it is | | | | be satisfied by the outer trappings of a life |
| not. It is the passage of time and the | | | | of great power, success, wealth, and |
| movement through space that weaves itself | | | | influence. For inside such a person there |
| into a deepening of wisdom, not just for the | | | | are perceptions that come only in moments of |
| learned or the spiritually inclined, but for | | | | aloneness - perceptions that convey to the |
| the many - for those who are just 'living | | | | inner understanding what has been lost in |
| their lives' as well as for those who are on | | | | order to gain what may have ultimately been |
| a conscious spiritual path. In every way, | | | | less valuable. |
| all of the time, we are learning about love, | | | | |
| sometimes through its presence in our lives | | | | The same is true for those who are angry, |
| and sometimes through its absence. | | | | disillusioned or bitter - for those who seem |
| | | | to have given up on intimacy and who remain |
| Life's teachings about love come in many | | | | either aloof, or critical, or embattled with |
| packages. They come in the laughter of | | | | others, especially those that are close to |
| children, in the devotion to friends, in the | | | | them. There is no angry person who deep |
| commitment to something that the heart cares | | | | within themselves does not have a heart that |
| about passionately, in the desire for | | | | beats to the same rhythm as all others - a |
| goodness, in the wish to help others, in the | | | | rhythm implanted by the Creator of hearts |
| longing to have one's heart be set free from | | | | that has both a physical component and an |
| the pain it carries, in the gentleness of a | | | | emotional and spiritual component - one that |
| loved one's arms, in the quiet embrace of | | | | leads part of the self to continue searching |
| family, in the reassurance of being at home. | | | | for the experience of love, even if another |
| These are the ordinary experiences of life | | | | part rejects it. That is why those who are |
| that are pivotal in our learning about love | | | | criminals of the worst kind can still love in |
| and that are profound in their teachings. | | | | their own way. It is because their hearts |
| When they are present, we often take them for | | | | are divided and in a certain, sometimes large |
| granted. Yet, when they are absent, they | | | | portion have become separated from their |
| cause a pain and an emptiness in the heart | | | | humanity, while in another part, they cling |
| that travels with us wherever we go. | | | | to the small expression of love they remain |
| | | | capable of. |
| It is possible to ignore the messages that | | | | |
| life would have us learn about the path of | | | | If we are open to life's teachings, we will |
| the heart, for we are free to choose what we | | | | travel the path of the heart without |
| wish to pay attention to and what we wish to | | | | difficulty and without confusion, for it will |
| ignore. Yet, inevitably, if we turn away | | | | lead us from love to greater love both in |
| from love's presence too often, the pain in | | | | terms of our understanding and in terms of |
| our heart will begin to convey a message of | | | | our experience. In the end, this same path |
| its own and will either become a physical | | | | will lead us to understand and to experience |
| pain in the body, requiring a turning toward | | | | the nature of God's love, and to see it |
| it in order to heal ourselves, or it will | | | | everywhere within its multiple forms and |
| become an emptiness in our soul that will | | | | expressions upon the earth. In this way, we |
| increasingly communicate a loneliness and | | | | will learn to live a sacred life, one that is |
| longing for a deepening of what we have | | | | built on love and that celebrates love within |
| previously rejected. | | | | the totality of life. |
| | | | |