Heroes Not Zombies

In the A to Z of Becoming, O is for “open”.

One of the most beautiful sights in Nature is the opening up of a flower (just like these poppies I photographed yesterday). So, in what ways can we “open” this week?

Open your mind. Many, many years ago I noticed graffiti on a wall in San Francisco, which said “Minds are like parachutes, they work best when they are open”. The General Semanticists say that “judgement stops thought”. When we “make up our minds” we often close them. I’m not saying you shouldn’t decide anything but it might be a good experiment now and again to keep an open mind, instead of coming down with certainty one way or another. We can also open our minds by opening ourselves up to new opportunities, new sights, new music, new tastes….in other words why not try something different this week, and see what it opens up for you?

Open your hands. Don’t grasp. Don’t cling. Can you let go? Accept? Just try this little experiment – make a fist with your hand, scrunch it up tightly. What feelings come with that gesture? Now, relax your fingers, and turn your hand palm upwards. What feelings arise now?

Open your heart. Approach people this week with an open heart, prepared to be kind, to be loving and accepting. What flows when you open your heart? (Another take on opening your heart to someone is to express your true feelings to them)

Let me tell you a strange story. I’m having a short holiday in Pézenas in the South of France. As the weekend approached I started to think about my Sunday blog post, the one about the A to Z of Becoming. This week it was to be “O for open” so I got to wondering about opening minds, opening hands and opening hearts. I wandered into the bookshop in Pézenas and browsed. The bookshop here is mainly a newsagent and stationers. They don’t have a lot of books, but there was a pile on a table. One caught my eye “L’Âme du monde” by Frédéric Lenoir. I’d never seen or heard of this book before but the “soul of the world” title caught my fancy. I picked it up and flicked it open to a random place, which turned out to be the start of a chapter. The chapter title? “Ouvre ton coeur” – “open your heart”.

I don’t know. You explain it!