Leave Room for Endless Possibilities

I would like to live

Like a river flows.

Carried by the surprise

Of its own unfolding. - John O’Donohue

The last week of the year, my daughter’s friend came to our house to create a vision board for the new year. They spent hours working on it, imagining the new year, dreaming, hoping, and searching for images that could best describe what lives within. At some point my oldest daughter joined them. I rejoiced in seeing them so occupied with this work and hurried to find more magazines for them. Magazines, glue, gems, and decorations covered their working space. 

When they were finished I went to look at their boards. Itzel’s and her friends were filled completely with the year in the middle, each dreaming about what the new year may or will bring.

 Then I turned to Ericka, she had very aesthetically pleasing images in the center only. 

-You didn’t fill it all up, I said

-The empty part is for the endless possibilities, she responded. 

We chuckled and then I agreed how wonderful that was; to think of the endless possibilities.

Her words stayed with me, sparking a reflection on how we can cultivate such openness in our own lives. I mean, those endless possibilities  are always there, whether we want them or not. We imagine the future, and then we arrive only to notice that it looks different from how we might have imagined it; sometimes in wonderful ways, sometimes in not so exciting ways. 

Since there will always be ways in which life will surprise us and drop an unexpected possibility in front of us, I have been thinking about the qualities that we need to foster in order to meet the unexpected appropriately. I believe that an open and soft heart is the foundation upon which we can stand and meet life as it comes.

A soft and open heart knows how to leave room for the unexpected. It moves through life with expectancy. With wonder. It knows that wonder is hidden in plain sight and, for that reason, it moves readily available to awe. Like a routine morning walk, awestruck by the sight of wildflowers, dolphins in the ocean, a soaring hawk, or the diminutive ways in which life flows in caterpillars, ladybugs, and bees.  

The open heart recognizes the tenderness in life and knows how to respond to both suffering and joy. Like a stranger finding comfort in telling you about their grief and feeling an unexpected connection that softens the weight of their sorrow, if only for a moment. or the belly laughter moments when you are overcome with joy at an unexpected joke or silliness. 

A soft and open heart does not hide but remains available to the unfolding of life. It has learned to recognize beauty everywhere. If needed, it will adapt its shape to take the form that life puts before it. Such as when we find ourselves with an extra hour or hours to ourselves if a meeting is cancelled and decide to lean into its stillness or invitation to creativity. 

Kindness, curiosity, and excitement fuel a heart ready to embrace all that life unfolds 

As you plan your new year, whether through resolutions or planning, make sure to leave some space for what you cannot yet know, for the unexpected moments of joy and awe, for the moments of satisfaction that you cannot imagine, for the gratitude that will invade you when you least expect it. Let your soft and open heart lead, flowing like a river and carried by the surprise of your own unfolding.