StarHeart Express – Summer 2010
Point of View
Helen Keller said, “The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched. They must be felt with the heart.” In today’s world of so much busy ness in our minds, I appreciate this inspiration more than ever.
What does “feeling with the heart” mean? For me it is that uncontrollable burst of emotion that comes forth in many different ways—with laughter, tears of joy or sadness, or free-flowing energy and delight.
I believe “living large” is another way to describe “feeling with the heart”. Does living large mean that we are rich and famous? Does it mean we are popular or that “everybody knows our name?” It could…or not. Living large is about opening our heart, living a life that radiates from our heart, and feeling at home from that kind of consciousness.
Living large is defined by how we choose to live our lives rather than defined by the setting in which we live it. Nelson Mandela lived large even though he was imprisoned for 27 years. His mind was free to explore his innermost thoughts and he kept expanding his world even though his physical world had restrictions and limitations.
In this issue of StarHeart Express, Laurel Rund’s poem, Open Heart, is a beautiful expression about a place called home—a recipe for living large. Other examples are StarHeart people such as Leonard Knight who has very little in the way of material possessions yet he is living large with his Salvation Mountain project. He shows no physical signs of slowing down which I believe is an outcome of living large—the wellspring of energy that one feels when they are living life from the heart space.
I had the pleasure of spending a day with Michael Coleman, a laughter yoga advocate in the San Diego area. What I saw first-hand was someone who is living from his heart and from that space comes all of his energy and ideas. Both are non-stop. He has a vision to establish a non-profit organization that will provide funding for the training of laughter leaders who can lead 100 weekly senior laughter yoga classes. Just watching Michael with his senior classes left no doubt that he is “living large.”
As I look around, I find countless examples of people of all ages “living large.” I especially love seeing more and more young people who are discovering early in their lives the joy of being of service. They are getting involved in existing organizations or they are creating one to help solve challenging social issues. That’s living large!
When I did not have my own “place to live” for a few years, and people asked me where I lived, I always answered that I lived in my heart. Now that I have a place to live, I pray every day that I still live in my heart—the source of energy, the passion, the feelings that can’t be described any other way. Gre