Keeping an Open Heart

I wish I'd had a "real" camera with me, but my cell phone came through as the clouds moved in and out during an afternoon on the beach yesterday.

An old book but her messages are timeless.

​If you follow me on Sunday mornings, you're already used to the fact I go off track and a long way from the topic of photography. Well, I've been sitting here pondering what to write about, and as I whined a little to Sheila, who's up early this morning, being my muse she suggested, "Go read something!"

Years ago Sheila got me into the concept of feeding my soul by reading things that were more motivational and spiritual. We know how to feed our bodies with at least three meals every day, but, at least for me, I wasn't always feeding my soul. Well, I decided to catch up on Melody Beattie and stumbled across this passage of brilliance from two days ago:

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Keep you heart open, even when you can't have what you want.

It's easy to keep our heart open to life's magic and all its possibilities when we have what we want. It's more of a challenge, and more necessary than ever to keep our hearts open when we can't have what we want.

Even on the best journey, things happen. Plans change. Things shift and move around. This shifting and moving causes doors to close, relationships to end, blocks and frustrations to appear on our path. For now, that is what we see. For now, what we know is disappointment. We can't have what we want, and it hurts. When that happens, our tendency may be to shut down, close our hearts, forget all we've learned.

Keep your heart open anyway. Consciously choose to do that. Yes, you can go away, you can leave, you can shut down, but you don't need to. Now is a turning point. If you choose to open your heart, even when you can't have what you want, miracles will unfold.

All of us are chasing some dream, whether it's in business, our skill set or our relationships. There's very little that's beyond our grasp if we're patient. And while it sounds like I know what I'm talking about, I'll always be work in progress. Maybe the reason I love this industry so much is that it allows me to regularly change direction and accept that I still don't know what I want to be when I grow up!

My buddy Scott Bourne once talked about photography being the great equalizer. It doesn't matter how old you are, what race or religion, your financial strength, your sexual orientation or what you look like - you're judged by the quality of your images, the emotion, impact, and memories you capture.

And that brings me full circle back to Melody Beattie's first four words, keep your heart open.

Going through a divorce and challenges with my family, I once hugged my Dad and thanked him for keeping an open heart about my relationship with Sheila. He merely smiled and said, "When you love somebody there is no other choice!"

Wishing all of you a day filled with appreciating the journey you're on, patience, peace and the love of family and good friends. Go for those eleven-second therapeutic hugs and let those special people in your life know they're important to you.

Happy Sunday everybody! 

When you dance, your purpose is not to get to a certain place on the floor.
It's to enjoy each step along the way.
Wayne Dyer