Sharing gratitude practice with fellow travelers the other day, Lydia called it “Pema dipping” as we thumbed freely through the tiny book, stopping at whichever page called. Time and again, this practice has brought poignant and timely wisdom to an experience.
![Meeting Lydia and Stephen and commiserating about the advent of our travels. Or, as Stephen called it, "Purgatory, Part II" [Being in the country but not yet traveling]](https://her-odyssey.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/wpid-photogrid_1447856564367.jpg?w=620)
Don’t let life harden your heart
When I was about six years old I received an essential teaching from an old woman sitting in the sun. I was walking by her house one day feeling lonely, unloved, and mad, kicking anything I could find. Laughing she said to me, “Little girl, don’t you go letting life harden your heart.”
Right there, I received this pith instruction: we can let the circumstances of our lives harden us so that we become increasingly resentful and afraid, or we can let them soften us and make us kinder and more open to what scares us.
We always have this choice.
I cannot express how deeply carrying this tiny book has touched my life over the past months. It was gifted to me by a beautiful soul from my mountain home in Colorado. I feel honored to be a link, to share it and seeing it shared. I hope it carries forward the same with each of you.
Comments (4)
good luck to you and now left right left right
Thanks for sa;ring this inspi=ational message henry and jaki
Your inner Buddha is showing, shine on dear ones.
In the midst of any challenges and setbacks that lie ahead of you, may you keep the same heart and sense of wonder that you had when you were six years old.