BE: Open

The word “open” is on everyone’s lips these days.

Re-open-ing the states. Re-open-ing for business.

Is it too soon? Is it too late?

Open. Open. Open.

And yet, so much of this conversation doesn’t feel so open at all.

Once again, it seems like there are two sides to these conversations and the sides don’t seem very open-minded or open-hearted to one another.

Which makes me wonder: What have we learned as a world over these past three months if we’re not finding new ways to be open-hearted and open-minded?

That’s why I decided to make today’s heart-centered practice: BE Open.

What does that mean? Let’s ask my dear friend, the dictionary:

allowing access, passage, or a view through an empty space; not closed or blocked up.

To BE Open is to allow an idea, a person, a belief, a view or viewpoint access or passage. It to not close or block our minds and hearts up to another’s perspective. It is to have cleared out enough of our own cluttered history of judgments and beliefs to let in those of another.

exposed to the air or to view; not covered.

To BE Open is to uncover our own prejudices and reveal them in humility and honesty so that we show up not in defense of our positions but in willingness to meet on equal ground with everyone and everything else on this planet.

move or adjust so as to leave a space allowing access and view.

To BE Open is to move or adjust our thinking and our beliefs and our long-held notions to allow a new perspective to arise or emerge — one co-created with others who may have different beliefs or ideas.

unfold or be unfolded; spread out.

To BE Open is to recognize that our world is filled with infinite perspectives, histories, cultures, beliefs, ideas — and to open ourselves to the unfolding of those infinite ideas into something for the common good.

Yeah. Okay. BUT. . .

What about this? That’s just ridiculous.

And what what if we do that and this happens?

And what if? What if? What if?

Yes, what if?

And what if not?

The purpose of social distancing, quarantine, lockdown and isolation was NOT to firmly entrench ourselves in our own ideas and ways of being — but rather to recognize that we really are ALL ONE.

Either we are or we aren’t.

Spoiler alert: We are.

We’ve seen the trailer. Now we have to live the movie of Oneness with one aonther and this planet. Or what was the actual point?

So, how do we BE Open?

I’m not gonna preach. I’m gonna practice.

I’m gonna practice what I’ve been learning as the last four years as a nomad. But I will share one of my road maps with you. . .

Read this classic poem by Walt Whitman. Feel its invitation in your heart. Imagine the world re-opening and you have the chance to set out again — healthy and free on a planet you now know you truly love, among neighbors and strangers that you now know to be just like you.

And then take that invitation of the “open road” into every encounter you have.

EVERY. ENCOUNTER.

NO EXCEPTIONS.

BE OPEN.

Open minded. Open hearted. Open to listening. Open to learning. Open to loving. Open to living.

THIS is how we begin to re-open. By opening our hearts and minds. By bringing all that we have learned about ourselves and our world out into the open and connecting through that commonality.

This is the healing our world needs — and deserves!

This is how we heal. We take #LOVEVIRAL!

SONG OF THE OPEN ROAD (Walt Whitman, 1819-1892)

Afoot and light-hearted I take to the open road,
Healthy, free, the world before me,
The long brown path before me leading wherever I choose. 

Henceforth I ask not good-fortune, I myself am good-fortune,
Henceforth I whimper no more, postpone no more, need nothing,
Done with indoor complaints, libraries, querulous criticisms,
Strong and content I travel the open road.

The earth, that is sufficient,
I do not want the constellations any nearer,
I know they are very well where they are,
I know they suffice for those who belong to them.

(Still here I carry my old delicious burdens,
I carry them, men and women, I carry them with me wherever I go,
I swear it is impossible for me to get rid of them,
I am fill’d with them, and I will fill them in return.)

If you’d like to listen to today’s heart-centered practice, here you go!