"The goal of life is to make your heartbeat match the beat of the universe; to match your nature with Nature". -Joseph Campbell
I have heard it said, and I believe it to be true, that the unifying force that holds the universe together is Love. One need only to walk outdoors to experience this phenomenon, in sky’s translucence, suns buttery warmth, winds breath, birds symphony, rivers calling, seedlings flowering, and gardens luscious abundance. Nature provides us with countless signs of Love’s expansiveness in Creations’ infinite dance of loving affirmation.
All suffering arises when we resist or try to deny Love; when somehow we think we are separate from God. Our thinking mind can overanalyze and try to dismantle what heart knows to be true.
The above painting was inspired by the following story from, “A Path with Heart” by Jack Kornfield.
“There is a tribe in east Africa in which the art of true intimacy is fostered even before birth. In this tribe, the birth date of a child is not counted from the day of its physical birth nor even from the day of conception as in other village cultures. For this tribe the birth date comes the first time the child is a thought in its mother’s mind. Aware of her intention to conceive a child with a particular father, the mother then goes off to sit alone under a tree.
There she sits and listens until she can hear the song of the child that she hopes to conceive. Once she has heard it, she returns to her village and teaches it to the father so that they can sing it together as they make love, inviting the child to join them.
After the child is conceived, she sings it to the baby in her womb. Then she teaches it to the old women and midwives of the village, so that throughout the labor and at the miraculous moment of birth itself, the child is greeted with its song. After the birth all the villagers learn the song of their new member and sing it to the child when it falls or hurts itself. It is sung in times of triumph, or in rituals and initiations. This song becomes a part of the marriage ceremony when the child has grown, and at the end of life, his or her loved ones will gather around the deathbed and sing this song for the last time.”
Imagine, if we were attuned to the heartbeat of our universe in such a loving way that we could hear each other’s song!
According to E. Easwaren, each of us carries Love’s blueprint in every cell of our body. Our life purpose is to discover that Source of infinite Love and to express that love in our daily living.
~liz Sorensen Wessel
I dedicate this blessing song, to my precious grandaughter Starling Wessel who is scheduled to greet us all on July 9, 2012.
Note: above acrylic watercolor by ~liz
