How’s Your Heart?

I stumbled across this question in something I was reading this morning and remembered that we asked it of one another a few years ago when things were dark. I don’t know about you, but I can slip into experiencing the world as dark and scary again these days if I’m not careful. This is a good question to ask again.

How are you protecting the tender places in your heart?

I skim the news, rather than reading deeper these days. Thinking of the old days when news came in the form of a daily newspaper, I’m trying (okay, intending, because I’m not there yet) to check in with the sources I follow just once or twice a day.

I’m spending less time at my laptop and more working on a jigsaw puzzle (it’s the middle of a frigid winter in Saskatchewan; it’s what we do) or reading a book.

I’m using markers and pencil crayons and dabbling with neurographic art.

I’m baking bread. There’s something special about the yeasty aroma and satisfying flavour, isn’t there?

I’m making soup, because soup always comforts.

Speaking of comfort, I’m wearing soft and cozy clothes on stay-at-home days (read: most days). Sometimes, I let my hair be just what it wants to be if I don’t have a Zoom scheduled.

I’m leaning in to contemplative practices and thinking about Richard Rohr’s saying that “you can’t go deep if you’re distracted.” I choose deep.

I’m thinking about the fact that we, as a people, have lived through hard times before and that light always shines in the midst of it. Tending my own light so I can be a light in some small and simple way makes good sense to me.

How’s your heart these days? How are you caring for it?

(I just realized that in a couple of days it will be Valentine’s Day. Seems like a good time to check in with our heart, doesn’t it?)