The Pure Power of an Open Heart

This morning was soft and gray outside, and blissfully quiet. Inside, my kitchen was warm, cozy and bright. I sat at the table with my journal open before me, feeling deeply content and eager to put pen to paper. I began writing about how blessed I felt in that moment…and then it happened. My cat, Zippy, began scratching a cabinet to get my attention.

I could feel irritation rising within me at the intensely annoying sound. I did my best to focus my mind on my breath rather than on thoughts of a scratched cabinet door that would need attention.  I mustered a loving tone in my voice as I called Zippy to me. (This was a response I had developed in recent weeks that often worked. And sometimes didn’t.)

Zippy didn’t come to me. He coyly rubbed his face on the edge of the cabinet and then began scratching again. I got up and moved toward him, to coax him away from the cabinet, but I knew he had other plans. Sure enough, he ran toward the chair I’d been sitting in and jumped on the seat. It was now his chair. The chair on the side of the table with the best lighting for reading and writing.

Let me pause here to say that I love cats. I adore cats! And I particularly adore the precious furry beings who live with me now, Possum and Zippy. They bring immeasurable joy to my life, and I count them among my many blessings. I delight in their quirks and antics – well, I delight in most of them.

In recent weeks, Zippy has created a new game with my “writing chair.” He loves to get me out of it so he can jump on it and allow me to pet, rub and scratch him, all the while telling him how wonderful he is. Then he curls up and sleeps contentedly as I sit in another chair – one with dimmer lighting overhead – to write in my journal.

In the beginning, I found this to be a far better alternative than the game he’d previously devised, which was simply to scratch all the finished furniture until I got up and went to wherever he was, to stop him. What he wanted from me at those times was unclear, and I never seemed to satisfy him. Mornings became a time that I started to dread. I didn’t want to feel that way about my mornings or my cats.

At one point I felt inspired to start calling him to me when the scratching began, to really open my heart and let him know that I love him and want him near me.  I was initially pleased with how well that worked, and delighted to see him trot happily into the kitchen to rub against my chair and my legs, purring. At some point, though, that wasn’t quite enough to satisfy him. That’s when he began scratching the kitchen cabinets to get me out of the chair, which he then claimed for himself.

And that’s when I started to feel resentful.

It was just a subtle feeling, really. So much so that I convinced myself I was simply going with the flow.  What did it really matter that the lighting was a little dimmer at that end of the table? I could still write in my journal, couldn’t I? And wasn’t it far better for Zippy to be content than restless and, dare I say, obnoxious? I wanted harmony, above all, and was willing to do my part.

Shortly before all of this started, I had committed clearly and passionately to three related intentions: to be in a state of joy as often as I possibly could, to live in the moment and allow my energy to guide my choices, and to practice complete nonresistance to any circumstance that initially appeared to be unwanted. Almost immediately, my life felt elevated. It was elevated. I was more content than ever as virtually everything in my experience became lighter, easier and more fun.

The situation with Zippy confounded me. Why did it appear that our relationship was becoming contentious, when everything else in my life was getting better and better?

As a student and teacher of spirituality, energy and consciousness, I knew that everything I experienced in my outer world reflected back to me, in some way, an aspect of my inner world – a frequency within my energy field. I also knew how easy it would be to get pulled into an endless search for that frequency, especially if I held the view that it was bad or wrong.  So I anchored myself into these loving truths as best I could, while continuing to cultivate joy and nonresistance:

• There is only one true power in this Universe, and it is Love. This Love is always for me. It is with me, in me and all around me.
• Nothing has gone wrong here. Something good is coming from this.
• I will know what I need to know when I need to know it.

This morning, I was blessed with the shift in awareness and response that I’ve wanted in this situation with Zippy. And, interestingly, it started with anger.

Anger often develops when resentment is unacknowledged, which is clearly what happened with me. As I resignedly moved my journal to the end of the table where there is less overhead light, while Zippy curled up happily in the well-lit chair I’d been sitting on, I felt angry. I knew it was ridiculous, but I also knew better than to judge myself for how I was feeling.

So I didn’t.  I took some deep breaths, placed my left hand on my heart and began circling my right arm in large, counterclockwise circles, repeating, “In Love, through Love, with Love and as Love, I gather my power to me.” I allowed the energy of anger to course through me as I kept my heart open, knowing that heart energy – Love – could transmute anything.  And sure enough, as I continued to breathe deeply from an open heart, without resistance to my anger, the feeling shifted.

I felt strong, clear and empowered.  I began speaking aloud things I realized I’d been thinking inwardly for several weeks in a very righteous, defensive way. Things such as, “I deserve to be treated with respect in my own home!” “I’m the only one in this household who reads and writes, so I’m the one who needs the best lighting for that!” I hadn’t realized at the time that I was defending against my own judgment of being silly and selfish for wanting that particular chair.

This morning, as I allowed the anger energy to morph into empowerment and clarity, I could see the simple truth that, yes, I am the one who reads and writes, so it’s logical that I sit in the chair with the best lighting for those activities. There are plenty of other chairs for Zippy to sleep on. I also remembered that we’ve been living harmoniously together for years, sharing the chairs, and we could certainly do so again. I spoke these things aloud, without any charge, and felt liberated by them. It was an exhilarating feeling.

I asked for guidance about the next step. A picture came into my mind of gently picking Zippy up and placing him in another chair. I had tried that before and it hadn’t worked well, but that was when I’d felt resentful. This morning, I was calm. So I did exactly that.

He jumped down almost immediately, but stayed on the floor. I sat in the chair I preferred. A few minutes later, I got up to heat my coffee. Zippy jumped in the chair I’d been sitting on. Still calm, I picked him up and placed him on a different chair. He settled down.

Over two hours have passed and he’s still there, curled up and sleeping contentedly. Have I mentioned how much I adore him?

I feel immensely thankful for this experience. It’s such a clear example of energy dynamics I have understood and practiced for years, with a deepened appreciation for how effective they truly are. And how essential it is to honor them, now more than ever.

We are living through an incredible, unprecedented awakening within humanity, and with it comes ever-increasing intensity of energy flows, of all kinds and in all directions. It’s easier than ever now to connect with the beautiful realms of love, joy, abundance and compassion, yet it’s also easy to get pulled into currents of irritation, blame, frustration and judgment. We benefit ourselves and others greatly by staying close to how we feel, and doing whatever we know to do to cultivate the states of being we want to live in.

The key really is vibration, which we recognize by how we feel.  In this vibrational Universe, vibration, or state of being, is what generates outcomes. Action is secondary.  

With this understanding, the simple and highly effective approach we can take is to refrain from taking action when feeling anything other than neutral or better, and to take guided action when feeling peaceful or clear or empowered.

Thanks to Zippy, I now see, feel and know the elegant effectiveness of this more clearly than ever.

As part of this expanded clarity, the experience with Zippy highlighted for me the important distinction between nonresistance and inaction, or passivity. Nonresistance is a state of being, a vibration of neutrality or calm. From that place we may or may not be guided to action. When the game with Zippy initially began, I confused nonresistance with inaction. I took no action to remove him from the chair I preferred, thinking that was being resistant. Yet that was the action I was guided to take, once my state of being was truly nonresistant.

All of this is specific to the moment we’re in. There could well be times when, in joy or contentment, I feel guided to leave Zippy on the chair I prefer, recognizing that as a signal that my energy is calling me elsewhere. So this isn’t about setting rigid rules of behavior. It’s just the opposite, really. It’s about being fully present in the moment, paying attention to how we feel and allowing ourselves to be guided into the actions that are most loving and effective.

It’s simple, yet our generally overactive minds want to make it complicated. We’ve been conditioned for so long to analyze and strategize and figure things out in our heads, while at the same time being conditioned to believe we’re unworthy of all the good life has to offer, leading us to falsely believe we have to prove or justify ourselves in some way. All of that creates a cloud of mental static that interferes with our ability to feel the truth of who we really are, pulsing eternally in our hearts.

We are gloriously unique and precious expressions of One Source, which is unending Love. We are innately brilliant, powerful and worthy. This Universe is infinitely abundant; there is no shortage of Good. And we are joyously deserving of all the good life has to offer, which can show up in countless ways. Any and all perspectives to the contrary will inevitably lead to some form of discomfort, pain, struggle or suffering.

Had I continued viewing the situation with Zippy as an annoying cat thing that I had to live with, and therefore continued dismissing how I genuinely felt, I would have missed the opportunity to experience the joyous liberation and empowerment I felt when I realized the deeper truth within it.  And had I chosen to take action from a place of resentment or anger, I would have perpetuated the situation I was trying so hard to tolerate, because action taken from a place of inner resistance can only lead to outer experiences that we resist.

The deeper truth revealed in this seemingly insignificant, daily life experience is that I genuinely deserve to be supported in what I love to do, which includes something as simple as good lighting when I write. And Zippy deserves to feel loved and to sleep in a comfy chair.

And the obvious solution to our stalemate could only be recognized and successfully implemented from a loving place of clarity about those truths. Nothing to judge, nothing to justify, nothing to defend. Just an abiding intention to connect deeply with who I really am, who Zippy really is, and the truth that in this infinitely creative and loving Universe, all that we desire and require is available to us, in some way, in every moment.

We can only access these liberating truths from within the purity of our hearts. And we can only experience the effortless power of pure Love to create grace-filled outcomes by keeping our hearts open and our minds clear.

So…let’s do it.