Open the Door

“…but the greater glory is to figure out how to care, how to keep the heart wide open without bleeding too much. When we close down, the world narrows and both the pain and the joy are left on the doorstep.”

Somebody sent me these words recently with a note that she found them both poignant and necessary. They came from a talk someone gave in 2011 and surprised I was to find out that the speaker was me! Part of a talk I gave at our annual Orff Course titled “Opening and Closing.” And though these days I’ve been partially on a diet of eating my words (“Orff online?! NEVER!!”), it’s good to also stand by them nine years later.

So the question is this: How does the closing of our world, the narrowing of our possibilities, the limitations of our choices, contribute to the opening of the heart, the expansion of the mind, the increased freedom that comes from attending to the blessings still within reach? If we close down with the world and step outside when it re-opens with the same width as when we began sheltering, we will have wasted a precious opportunity. Open the door and let the joy and pain enter. 

(After they wash their hands, of course. )