Our minds can only take us so far in this journey we have embarked upon, the rest takes the heart. Our mind will help us resolve simple questions. It will help us balance our checkbooks, but it will not resolve the most pressing issues of our lives. That takes the heart. While so many things can be done by the mind, the solutions for the most important questions we have lies about a foot lower.
Listening to the heart.
What our minds do best is to create divisions between ourselves and others. We often watch children at play and wonder at their ability to accept anyone into the game. This is because the child is not using their mind to see differences in others, they are using their hearts to see that we have much more in common than we have differences. The language of the heart is the language of inclusion. A mother in America has the same desires for their child as the mother in Iran. A government so bound to the mind sees only the dollars and cents in selling a piece of property. A government which also sees through the heart knows the greater value in open space. Have you, even once, thought the family vacation should be to an oil refinery or pipe line across a wilderness?
Discernment.
The heart cannot lead all the time. The mind has it’s place in our thinking and actions too. What we must learn to do is balance these two essential elements of decision making. What we cannot do is discourage too much of one, and not enough of the other. We can not, and should not, blindly dismiss business in favor of open spaces. Still, we can be discerning about what and where we build. There is not much peace of mind to be found at a fracking site that used to be a beautiful prairie. An old growth forest is so much more refreshing than a coal mine slag pile.
