How many ways can life open your heart?
These photos of two precious children are quite different, yet each has a way of touching our hearts.
The first, a pure moment of iridescent JOY beamed through one of life’s simplest of pleasures…bubbles! I asked to share this photo of a friend’s daughter because it reminds me of the unbridled glee of innocent joy bubbling from within.
Perhaps it will bring a few bubbles of happiness to your heart, too.
The second, a favorite photo from last year’s trip with The Waterbearers. This little girl represents a different kind of heart opening for me…compassion for the children of our world who are living without a most basic human need. Clean water.
Two photos…two children…two heart-opening reactions.
Which is more important, to feel our hearts spring open through simple moments of joy, or to allow our hearts to break open by seeing through eyes of compassion into the pain of the world?
I imagine you, like me, are willing to feel both. There’s really no other way to live as heart-centered humanitarians, which at one level means we who are willing to be opened by life and to give what is ours to give.
Let your JOY open you. Find happiness in simple moments that come more often the more you notice them. These moments are fuel to keep you glowing through the less joyful times.
Then let life break you open. Find something that hurts. Be willing to weep for something in our world that isn’t right. Your love, your attention is needed here, too.
Find Purpose in both: Simple, unbridled moments of joy. Complex, heart-bursting moments of compassion.
Be insistent and persistent in your pursuit of both. These are the seeds which will grow your most generous and abundantly happy life.
Find them @ 
You’ll love the simple eloquence of this unique combination of poetry and spiritual insight on the Art of Becoming.