Thursday, January 19, 2012

When Change is Constant

My mom said the other day, "I have left pieces of my heart all over the world."  She and my dad have only been back in the States since last summer.  I understand that feeling of being caught in transition, trying to balance on the tectonic plates of multiple cultures that shift and bump into each other, change the only constant in your life.

I've had some time to heal, to put down roots, to come to a safe place where my feet are firmly planted and my heart can grow.  Interesting fact:  when infants begin to develop, they can only develop one skill at a time.  They are born with their voice boxes high up in their throats, for example.  At first they can only cry.  Loudly!  But then their voice boxes begin to drop, and they begin to make other sounds.  When they start to crawl, however, an interesting change happens.  The vocalizing takes a back seat to the developing gross motor skills as baby tries to figure out how to coordinate his arms and legs.  Only one area of the brain can develop at a time.

I think our hearts act the same way.  When we're in constant shift and transition, we focus on adapting to each new change.  The heart issues of who we've left behind, broken relationships, and denied self, take a back seat.  It's only when we've stopped moving that the heart can then start to sort all the backlogged emotions.

No comments:

Post a Comment