Shabat

Sitting here on my balcony with my feet up, the hot sun healing the mosquito bites on my ankles, gazing across the rooftops of Givatayim and absent-mindedly pondering the nature of heart, I realise that there are some fundamental truths (principles) of heart that are quite apparent if you have the heart to feel them:

1. Heart leaps out to touch other hearts (see yesterdays post).


2. Heart is terribly optimistic: if it leaps out and touches an object without a heart it will readily and happily invest that object with a heart. In this sense optimism could be defined as giving life.


3. Heart attracts heart: my heart tugs those hearts it leaps out and touches. But similarly my heart is always being tugged by those hearts around me that have opened up to my heart. In this sense simple connexion is not enough: there needs to be some elastic play along the connexion – communication.


4. When two hearts open up and become aware of each other and therefore become drawn to each other, then the ensuing communication always approximates a figure of eight rather than a circle. A circle encloses and unifies – the two hearts become one – whereas a figure of eight, whilst connecting and promoting communication, still allows (requires) each heart to keep its integrity and identity. The space between the two hearts then becomes incredibly charged – effectively it fills with love. Walt Whitman understood this when he said his fantasy was to sleep between the bride and the groom on their wedding night.