Bird Droppings May 14, 2025

Being reborn is simply listening with the heart

So often in life, we hear words and rationalize those utterances, develop an opinion, and then logically state a response. I was sitting in a meeting after talking with my principal about next year, and being a retired part-timer, I am sort of in limbo, as are several of my friends I have made here. A simple ceremony of giving a flower to each leaving teacher was moving along, and my name was called, but my friends were not. I was overwhelmed with emotion; sort of like being hit by a truck. I left the meeting not really speaking to anyone, trying to understand the finality, and I’m not even sure if it was final. I heard words, rationalized them, and let emotion overshadow logic.

I got thinking back to a conversation sitting discussing existentialism with my granddaughter one night nearly twelve years ago, as she cooed and babbled, trying her best to formulate words. Even as an infant, her emotions, however, were conveyed. As a tiny baby, she would be upset and cry, and you would know her diaper was wet or hungry. As she got a few months older, she became more sophisticated. She would whimper her distaste at being held a certain way, or that she wanted to go for a walk, or for Granddad to stop the infernal conversation on existentialism. Let’s read The Grumpy Caterpillar again.

We hear with our heads. Those vibrations from another person’s vocal cords transmitted through the air strike the inner workings of our ears, and we, in our thought processes, put meaning to that sound. When I see or hear the word dog, I immediately visualize a four-legged, barking life form that pops into my mind. Generally, if only the random word dog, that visual in my head is one of my previous pets. Far too often, we let the dictionary do our thinking. We respond to the word on a page and how that definition has been explained or taught to us. We do not hear with the heart. A grandbaby teaches you quickly, otherwise. Occasionally, a tear or smile will give away where words are coming from, and good listeners will understand and hear the inner workings of the words, not just the definitions.

“Look at every path closely and deliberately; we should then ask ourselves this crucial question: Does this path have a heart? If it does, then the path is good. If it doesn’t, it is of no use.” Carlos Castaneda

It has been several years since I first read the meanderings of Carlos Castaneda and his journey as an apprentice medicine man in the mountains of Mexico. Many writers and scientists consider his books to be fiction. They are a very intricate fabrication as he developed his doctoral dissertation. I find myself fascinated with his stories of a Yaqui holy man who took him in and taught this college-educated man the old ways. While the possibility of fiction is there for me, the storyline is depicted in the statement above. Far too often, we modern-day people choose a path of logic, one of definition, one of clear, concise, rational thought. We forget the aspect of the heart. When looking up online, we hear words provided in Webster’s Dictionary, or even more sadly, Google. When reviewed and analyzed, they have a specific meaning, and soon, we leave behind any emotion in what is being said. People speak not in clear and concise words but in emotions and feelings; we speak from the heart. We lose the emotion in our instantaneous, high-speed, immediate, and tell me now, society. 

Many years ago, a great storyteller spoke of becoming like children, and his followers’ immediate response was “We cannot be reborn physically. This story’s author spoke of listening with the heart, as do children. They haven’t learned all the words and still do not know the definitions, so the heart is all they have, and you know what they generally get right. As I watched my granddaughter so many years ago grip her upper lip in her two new bottom teeth, making faces at us while sitting in her grandmother’s lap, she knew the response she would get, and a whimper here and there, and people were jumping, getting toys, and a clean diaper. There were no words spoken; it was simply communication directly from the heart. Please keep all in harm’s way on your mind and most of all in your heart, namaste.

My family and friends, I do not say this lightly,

Mitakuye Oyasin

(We are all related)

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