KEEP SOME ROOM IN YOUR HEART FOR THE UNIMAGINABLE

Years ago I reminded a class of poetry students that poets never had to worry about selling out because there was no one buying. I also reminded them that poets only occasionally wrote poetry but were more often engaged in the work of uncovering and discovering the poetry around them, among them, and in them.

I recently revisited this latter truth when walking through the alley of a small town in Northern California. Without any poet’s intention other than observation, I saw outside a chalkboard sign that read: “Keep some room in your heart for the UNIMAGINABLE” – Mary Oliver. And I knew this was poetry. And Mary Oliver was a poet. And I knew I had to stop, take notice, and put the appropriate silence of thought around this truth.

A great many of us think that to be a guardian of our heart we need to put a guard around our heart. But, our heart is not guarded by walls; our heart is guarded by being loving. Those who do not love, give love and receive love give away what they imagine they are guarding. The walls we build are guarded by fear.

Similarly, if we border our imagination on whom we can love, or how we can love, or what or whom we imagine is possible to love then we have also already precluded the borders of God. And that is too sad. Because God is love, and God is without borders.

Surely at this time in history, nothing is more necessary for all of us than to choose a spirituality – an intimate connection to a Divine cosmic truth - that welcomes an unimaginable love can make its appearance in our heart. And of course, the turnkey to being other-loving requires us to be self-loving. That’s just the way it works. Cupid is the archer in each of us.

Open your heart, and you will give God a place to land. Open your heart, and angels you have not met, and might yet meet, will have somewhere to land. Open your heart and offer some unimaginable glory in who you are or whom you might yet become a place to visit. Keep some place in your heart sacred for the arrival of peace and blessings you have long prayed for and now realize you have not made space for.

The unimaginable isn’t. Imagine that!

- Noah benShea

Henry RosasFebruary 19, 2019