How lovely, a note from the Universe this morning.

“From where I sit, it is a mystery to me, Tara, how so many can look back on their past with pride, yet frown with disappointment at their present. Somehow forgetting that back then, they were just as self-critical, while somehow missing that today they’ve never, ever, been so close to all they’ve ever wanted.”

You know, I’ve always felt that our ‘best life’ was never more than one soul-filling breath away. A moment to pause, to reflect, to be gracious of heart – to understand the true fullness this life brings.

And yet, so often we take for granted – whisked away in the bustling of our day. We forget that while those things may seem important, they are not the treasure that waits for us within.

“There comes a time,” writes Sarah Dessen, “when the world gets quiet and the only thing left is your own heart. So you’d better learn the sound of it. Otherwise you’ll never understand what it’s saying.”

That we might learn to lean in and listen; to know the true sounds of the soul’s greatest ambition.

There is a precept in Buddhism related to deep listening. Though, often – it is assumed our listening must be directed outwards, in doing so, we fail to hear what our hearts most need to say.

Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva refers to a ‘universal door’ that is opened,

“The universal door manifests itself
in the voice of the rolling tide.
Hearing and practicing it, we become a child,
born from the heart of a lotus,
fresh, pure, and happy,
capable of speaking and listening
in accord with the universal door.
With only one drop of the water
of compassion
from the branch of the willow,
spring returns to the great Earth.”

Such an important reminder as to the power of deep listening. That we may someday open hearts to the realm of ‘all that is possible.’

And, in the end – leave nothing behind.