Heart Wide Open

Happy Gratitude! On the eve of our US holiday of appreciation, I give you this poem from my forthcoming book …

Heart Wide Open

Heart Wide Open

Warm sun.
Deep breath.
Kitty purr.
Coffee gurgle.

Soft eyes.
Beating heart.
Soft heart.
Armor melted.

Open arms.
Embracing all.
Boundaries melting.

Open mind.
Open heart.
Quiet mind.
Quiet heart.

Recognition.
Realizing.
Beyond the beyond.

Heart wide open.
Mind in awe.
Surrendered.
In awe.

No rush to cover.
Or control.
Or contract.
Heart wide open.

Heart wide open.

(Excerpted from my forthcoming book, “Strong from Within: Simple perceptions and practices for returning to the joy of you”)

How Do I Truly Experience Home?

I’m just back from a quick trip to Detroit to spend the weekend with my beloved niece, Alisha. For my whole life, I’ve preferred to drive to places rather than fly. I haven’t liked being off the ground, and I really haven’t liked feeling almost claustrophobic in a flying Greyhound.

Until this trip.

Milky way reflection at William's Lake, Colorado

Something shifted. I loved being in the air. I loved looking out into and flying through infinity. Especially at night. I felt at home in the Universe and wished I didn’t have the plane around me.

This shift startled me. What was going on?

Talking to my own coach today, I realized my sense of home is expanding. I can feel the vast nature of my spiritual home. I can feel the unlimitedness of me – beyond my body home, my wonderful casita home and my planet home.

Wow! That is something to write home about . . .

What about you? What does this bring up for you? How do you experience home?

(Excerpted from my forthcoming book, “Strong from Within: Simple perceptions and practices for returning to the joy of you”)

How Have I Loved and What Have I Shared Today?

Recently while working with a coaching client, he described his behavior in a particular situation and then asked me, “Is that normal?” What he really wanted to know, what we all want to know, “Am I okay? Compared to everyone else, do I fit in? Am I doing it right? Do I have value?”

While the questions are common, no answers will serve us. If the answers are primarily “no,” then we are “wrong.” If they’re primarily “yes,” we won’t believe them or we’ll believe them temporarily until the next time we feel compelled to ask for affirmation yet again.

Looking for external validation will never get us to where we want to go. As we come to accept, embrace and know our unique and perfectly imperfect humanness AND our Oneness in our Divinity, we will no longer seek approval or validation.

What is “normal” in my unique human expression looks nothing like what is “normal” in yours. You and I can be experiencing the exact same event, conversation or circumstance and we still have two separate realities based on our own perceptions and thoughts.

Then, when any of us experience something through our Divinity, the question of “normal” doesn’t even exist.

How Have I Loved Today

So, what might we ask ourselves instead? Right now, I’m asking myself, “How have I loved and what have I shared today?”

What about you? What’s meaningful for you to ask yourself?

(Excerpted from my forthcoming book, “Strong from Within: Simple perceptions and practices for returning to the joy of you”)

One Heart

Ann Strong - Strong from Within

Wholeheartedness.
Is my Joy.

Unity.
In relationship.
As relationship.
For relationship.
With All.

Without feeling separate.
Without judging.
Without seeking.

In service to Self.
In service to Love.
In service to All.

Present.
Listening.
Knowing.

Wholeheartedness.
One Heart.

One Love.
All One Heart.
One Heart.

One Heart.

(Excerpted from my forthcoming book, “Strong from Within: Simple perceptions and practices for returning to the joy of you”)