The Traveler

I thought she was a traveler. She appeared to be ready to go somewhere or to have just returned. She certainly wasn't one who had been in the same place forever. A little romantic, a little dreamy. I like her a great deal. I think she has an open heart and lives well with her vulnerabilities.

This is something I have been doing a great deal of thinking about recently. I haven't had an open heart. I've kept in a box in a secret place and then tried to forget where it was. Brick walls were a comforting thing. Then I could just pretend I was there. The other extreme seemed to be connected to pain and I was tired of that. Opening your heart usually meant someone was going to come in and stomp on it and I believed that so strongly it became true no matter what else happened.

But being so tightly wrapped away leads to migraines and ulcers and bad moods. One has to be brave to do a lot of traveling, especially beyond your own brick walls. The trick is to be brave enough and strong enough to open your heart all the way..all the way, so that even when you are rejected, denied or mocked for being who you are, you can continue being who you are, truly believing that is enough and opening enough to flow past the rejection, denial and mockery to a place where you can see the hurt and fear in the Other One. If you can do that sort of travel, then vulnerabilities melt and understanding and even compassion can replace the pain.

Sometimes there is even a sort of joy to be found in that sort of journey.