Tender Hearts Walking Around in Adult-looking Costumes
June 21, 2016
A daily practice that is growing in me and becoming a welcome habit is to view my fellow adult beings with the additional perspective of imagining them as the child they were. I find it a quick, effective way to have more compassion, to understand an other more fully, to judge less and inquire more.
We are tender hearts, wrapped in adult-looking costumes.
Let’s not forget this as we interact with one another.
Behind the facade, behind each exterior is a tender heart, a vulnerable self.
Remembering this can help us soften, listen, bring forth kindness, curiosity and a generosity of spirit as we relate with each other.
Tender hearts walking around in adult-like costumes.
Yes, even the grumpy co-worker. And the impatient woman standing in line behind us at the grocery store. The nervous, fluttery chitchatting mum and the quick-to-react, intense spouse too, as well as the “whatever” uttered too often too easily. All of them. All of us.
There is an innocence tucked in each person. There is a vulnerable tender heart at the centre of us all. Under the mask of the coolest styliest person, under the slightly distant turning away of the shy one, under harsh words that are uttered, under the closing down of communication, under the overbearing loud in-your-faceness, under all of it, there is the tenderness, the innocence we share, we all had and were at the beginning.
Keeping this in mind opens us to seeing deeper, not excusing current behaviours, but understanding more completely, and then, with this bigger view, possibly hearing under- and overtones that could easily be overlooked, swept by and missed… and yet, if seen and heard, can provide doorways to presence, to healing and regeneration.
So this my invitation today: look for the tender hearts walking around in adult-like costumes.
With great love to your tender heart, whether you carry it out on your sleeve, tucked in gently and safe but within easy reach, further under the surface or deeply buried,
Miriam
J
