Hearing With Your Heart
Living Happy
I’ve been getting a bit cranky lately.
And it’s made me realize that I need to get back to hearing with my heart and not just my head. I have this tendency to get crankier when I only just listen to people’s words.
“I’m not in a bad mood,” they might lie.
“No,” they might say, “despite the fact that I’m scowling, swearing up a storm and both my arms and legs are crossed indicating that someone is closed off, everything is a-okay.”
Getting back to hearing with my heart and not just my ears, listening to things beyond actual words spoken and into truths is pretty important to my own mental well-being.
And the way I get there is by:
Not spending any time on Twitter and decreasing social media time overall.
Not obsessing about the worst case scenario (We’ll go bankrupt! My throat hurts because I’m dying! That is a zombie walking down the street! We will never get out of Maine and go on vacation again) all the time.
Petting more dogs and cats and trees. Yes, yes, I do pet trees.
Taking better care of myself by sleeping more and drinking more water and not letting Shaun coax me into chemical-laden food. That man is a pusher!
Remembering to notice each moment instead of thinking ahead to the next or obsessing about the one I just left.
This past week, I got to witness some beautiful and joyous things. Our town has this parade that’s full of joy. Thousands come to witness it even though our tourist town itself only has 5,000 people in it. Old friends shriek for neighbors marching by. Children exult in collecting candy thrown. When you are in that parade? You feel all the good fame of being a celebrity and none of the downsides.
And then?
And then?
Two people got engaged!
The next day, we went to the most amazing whoopie pie run where people tried to eat a whoopie pie, run a quarter mile, eat another whoopie pie, and so on. I met a great dog, Merlin, and his human. People laughed and clutched their bellies and everything was funny and fun and joyous as they moved.
Then we went to a open house for the most amazing wildlife rehabilitation center run by a mother and son team that never stops working and never stops caring.
All those things? Wow. You know, none of them were really about words. They were all about heart. And there was almost no way to NOT hear what hearts were singing, marching, cooing, praising and guffawing in those events.
You just have to let your heart be open enough to hear them, to not always search for the negatives and just heart the good.
Our times in this country (the US) are hard and full of discord and that almost becomes addictive. We want to know the bad that happens. Will this man win the presidency? Will the other? What crime has happened? What crisis is coming? How can I be prepared?
That’s all still there.
But underneath all of that is also a remarkable and beautiful hearts everywhere: hearts that organize parades, hearts that create whoopie pie miles, hearts that love dogs named Merlin, hearts that volunteer and work and bring wild animals health and comfort.
That is what I want to listen to with my own heart. That’s what is just as important as all the bad.
All the photos here were taken by Shaun and me.
A gallery of Bar Harbor parade/Fourth of July photos we’ve taken is here.