A Heart Wind in Spring

Spring brings me to the banquet, calling me to embrace the fullness of life. The happiness jar is filling up fast!

Last week, we hosted a party where children ran through the house playing hide-and-seek with flushed cheeks.  Their laughter and squeals surrounded the adults in waves of happy nostalgia for our own childhoods.  Although the gentle spring rain kept us indoors, we celebrated the house feeling full; of thumpity foot traffic on the stairway, of giggling whispers and surprised shouts, of bonding and caring between families sharing parenting and family life.

Days after the party, we were still celebrating.   Elliot has been learning that while he wishes he had a brother, pangs of loneliness can be dissolved by reaching out and making plans.  He learned that his close friend Jack also wishes he had a brother.  Jack was able to spend the night after the party.  On mother's day, while his mom had to work (hospice nurses are needed no matter the holiday), Jack and Elliot spent time being brother-friends at the lake shore.

Almost anything can be healed and recovered through friendship.


On my journey to help Roots of Empathy come to North Carolina, I'm discovering more about myself than I am about the politics of forming committees and raising funds...two tasks which for which I am inexperienced and resistant to take on.  Yet the benefits of the attempt have already widened my perspective and helped me to "feel" my way through life in a more attentive way.

The work of my heart always seems to manifest into something through my hands.  It has come to my attention that I enjoy business in this simple form: exchanging a handmade good for the benefit of another something good.  So after the party, I returned to my creative space and this is what came out:

 These are something I'm naming "The Hugging Trees."  The green heart on each trunk symbolizes the green blanket in a Roots of Empathy classroom, where a small baby becomes a teacher of empathy and love.

When I am working on creating these trees, I feel a deep sense of meaning.  I feel kind and soft inside.  The sky feels more open and accepting when I walk outdoors.  It's a new experience to be relaxed and gentle with myself.  It is enough just to be who I am,  to take long ride bikes with Elliot, to read stories aloud, to wander and discover the unexpected.  Just yesterday as we were wandering through Downtown, I discovered a concert band that anyone can join.  Here is a wonderful opportunity to reclaim something I truly love!  Playing my French Horn in a band!

What is this air I'm breathing lately?

A heart wind in spring.