BIG-HEARTEDNESS

   I recall hearing it said that certain people had “big hearts”, meaning, I think, that they were overflowing with kindness and seemed to be able to share other people’s concerns and sorrows. It sometimes seems to me, though, that all of us actually have big hearts – infinitely big hearts -- except that we usually don’t realize it. It occasionally becomes clear to me that we all contain space enough inside us, in our inner spirit, to hold boundless amounts of kindness or sorrow. After all, our inner spirit –  our “other” heart, you might say – knows no boundaries, is not restricted by bones and flesh, but widens out as far as needed to hold whatever gloom or gladness life might send us.   It’s as if we have an endless sea inside us upon which all the ships of fear or joy,  happiness or disaster,  can comfortably ride.  Unfortunately, most of us -- including me -- usually see our inner lives as fairly small and constrained, able to hold only so much distress, and thus not able to be open to too much of other people’s pain. Every so often, however, I get a glimpse of the universal big-heartedness we all share –   the openness, the boundlessness, of our inner spirit. That’s when I know I can welcome, on my best days, the joys of life as well as the sorrows , including the sorrows of others. There’s room inside – inside all of us – for whatever feelings might flow our way.