The Year of the Heart

Join me in reading a contribution from collaborator, Lisa Roma for an early edition of Sunday Morning Thoughts.

2022: The Year of the Heart by rev. lisa roma w. © 2022 

When we think about the heart, a multitude of ideas and images come to mind—because the heart embodies many things, and naturally so. 

What does the heart embody? Surely, many things to many people. But mostly? Love. Love and, of course, Life. 

When we talk about the heart, we are immediately flooded with feelings of love. This automatically causes us to slow down our breathing and sigh. That’s what I just did, and I’ll do it every time. Love is the universal common thread when we think of the act of giving our heart to someone or putting our heart into something we believe in whole-heartedly. And there it is, that word, heart. Ah, the many emojis displaying colorful hearts in varieties of shapes and sizes and other cartoonish imagery, some sweet, some silly, some humorous—all heart-warming. 

Another natural word association, when we think about heart, is heart attack. This is a natural association because of the all-too-common medical condition related to the heart. But it is also, used as a common phrase to express surprise, as in, “He gave me a heart attack!” or “I almost had a heart attack!” Again, we hear that our heart equals our life. Without the heart, we have no life. 

Let’s look at the physical heart which gives us life and breath and even breathlessness in relation to beauty, passion, infatuation, and love, i.e. “Her beauty/the beauty of the sunset/ left me breathless.” The heart is a metaphor for many things, especially those of a feeling nature. 

We all know the physical heart is the organ that anchors our life force by control of our physical sustenance. Whereas the brain controls the neurological and thought processes of the body, the heart has other employs. A muscle in the relative center of our chest cavity protected by our rib cage, it pumps blood throughout our bodies, distributing via the various arteries and veins and smaller capillaries the oxygen, nutrients, and antibodies that keep us alive and healthy, contributing to our physical growth from infancy to adulthood and beyond, until we can no longer sustain our life force in an aging body and the physical body dies. 

While the heart physically gives us life, it is symbolic of the metaphysical center of an infinite variety of things: the heart of the matter, the virtual center of anything that can be part of a discussion, a choice of words that means something on so many levels of being, a central location of whatever it is that one is speaking about. 

And then there are the feelings beyond words—that Poetry and Music, perhaps, those magical languages, are best used to express. Another art form that expresses feelings without words is dance. Leonard Cohen’s famous song “Dance Me Til the End of Love” in and of itself invokes three while using two of these magical, expressive artforms. 

The heart speaking of its own accord. The blood pumping. The face flushed. The breathlessness of lovers meeting. The fullness of a mother’s heart when she holds her newborn baby. The joy and tenderness a father feels each time he holds his newborn baby in his arms no matter how many children his beloved wife births. A man kissing his old mother’s face. Two children playing in the park. Best friends sharing a cookie. A pair of old gentleman friends playing chess. Two grown people who just met. The exuberance and excitement of young lovers embracing. Husbands and wives sharing decades of anniversaries. Hearts synched in friendship, in love, in passion. A sister and brother who were separated from one another reuniting after decades living on opposite sides of the globe because of war or adoption.

So many variations on a theme. It is endless. Timeless. Magical. Love is the thing that breaks boundaries and knows no bounds. Love is the thing that catapults us, that continues on throughout our lives and travels via the senses and soul memory connection, life after life after life. Whether or not one believes in the concept of reincarnation, it matters not. Truth is the experience. Experience dictates truth. Whatever religion we may practice or be born into, this thing about the heart is a reality beyond logic. Love has no religion, and religion has nothing whatsoever to do with love. Religion is simply an affiliation. In my mind—and in my heart—I understand the spirituality of love as well as its other manifestations. 

I understand love as the infinite energy of the universe (in its greater sense, that is). When people say, “God is Love,” I understand it. Regarding my father, I understood love as an intelligent universal force of all embracing goodness and power. I viewed my father’s love as intelligent love. His purity emulated the universal concept I just described. That universal life force is what I see as the cause of evolution. Intelligent Love.

The heart represents the loving bond between a mother and father and their newborn baby, growing, glowing, nourishing each other, the nuances of communication, the daily moment-by moment changes experienced, the timeless universal bond, that appears at the birth of a baby 

that grew from two lovers joining in body and mind. It is the bond that binds together timeless friendships, sisters, brothers, soulmates, comrades, unspoken connections between animals and humans or other interspecies relationships, a mother cat with her kittens, an elephant matriarch nursing her calf, and the fathers who love.

Whatever gender. Love is genderless. God has no gender. And God is all genders. The heart has no gender. 

The heart is at the center of everything. 

During peaceful times, the trauma of war is not present. We live our lives casually, intentionally, passionately, moment to moment, planning for the future, making dates, going to work, spending money on food or frivolous things without a care, celebrating birthdays and anniversaries, admiring the full moon over the ocean, hearing birds chirping in nearby trees at sunrise, stargazing by night, cloud watching by day, listening to music, going to concerts, the beach, dancing, celebrating, caring, conversing, singing, laughing, honoring.

Unusual romances blossom in unexpected places. Love rekindles between old partners. Friends evolve into lovers, and colleagues realize they have special feelings for each other. Anything can happen. People travel on a whim to another state or country and meet the love of their dreams. Or they return home one day and suddenly discover true love is their next-door neighbor. There are so many possibilities. 

Sometimes, love is found in the midst of war. Many people find each other in difficult or challenging situations and bond together over shared and common yearnings. Desperation leads to hopefulness. The proximity of death lights the flames of passion within young hearts. Sometimes, love bridges generations and unites otherwise star-crossed lovers. Enemies become comrades. Besides the unruliness of the heart which makes its own rules, what are we fighting for? We ask this in the silent rooms of the heart. Why are we killing each other when there are so many other possibilities for working together for common good? But that is a different conversation. 

However, we need to talk about something. Let’s go back to the beginning of this conversation between us, between my thoughts and you who are reading what my mind has turned to words. All of this happening amidst a constant backdrop of life and death. Meanwhile, as millions of babies are being born, countless souls are passing through life, the rainbow of existence, succumbing to death via illness, accident, acts of war, acts of rage, and old age. Yet still, others recover. 

When humans encounter death, there is grief. Any form or violence, abuse or loss of love, gives way to trauma. Even in the animal kingdom where we think there is no emotion, there is love and there is grief. Elephants love and mourn, just as we do. Animals experience trauma when they are abused, just as human children do. 

Those of us who have pets know that animals such as dogs or cats bear the same natural instincts to nurture and care for their young and to love their honeys (mates), as we do. Yes, our human lives are more complex, but observe their behavior. Witness their tenderness. Know their grief. Animals are like innocent children in some ways. Animals differ in that they have keen protective instincts they can act upon. 

If people are deprived of familial love in childhood, bear witness to or experience abuse, they suffer from anger, hurt, and low self-esteem. If our loss is due to an accident, act of war, terrorism, the passive aggression of illness, abusive parenting, sexual violence, the early death of a beloved, or bearing witness to murder or massacre, we are filled with repressed rage. All these experiences create PTSD. Our very brain chemistry changes. If we lose a child, parent, or sibling to illness or accident and early death, we are traumatized. 

Experiences of trauma are brought about by many things of a violent nature which cause grief, depression, repressed anger, and may, if not dealt with adequately, lead to possible illness—psychological, physical, or both.

If you think about it, there are so many reasons not to love. If you believe in your fears, that may be true. If, on the other hand, you believe in the infinite possibilities of the heart, there is magic to be arranged. Universal magic. 

If we choose to allow our fears to rule us, then we are lost, possibly forever. Terrorism strikes at the heart of peace. Trauma and stress become your constant companions. Roses once bought for love and romance are now reminders of how we honor the dead. Ten children, the entire nursery ward in a hospital, nine men in your village, five older women, all gunned down, the apartment building half destroyed by an enemy missile, the soldiers fighting the enemy. 

What’s that about? And how can you find love now? Where is your heart now that the trauma of war has you in tears, your loved one has been shot or flattened by an armored vehicle, your heart is shattered, your home is in tatters, where do you go from here? 

While millions of displaced victims run to find shelter or refugees die fleeing to find freedom, others are welcomed into the arms and homes of strangers in foreign or nearby countries. That is the heart in action. That is the truth finding meaning in real-time. That is the center of an evolutionary shift on our planet. Dinosaurs have come and gone, but real love exists. The cycle of life continues. Love lingers on, and “You’ve Got a Friend” is not just a song on the radio composed by Carole King and sung by James Taylor (who were just friends, by the way, but love each other dearly). Friends in faraway places become refuge for victims of trauma and disaster. This is also love. The heart stretches across the miles to welcome home the strangers of another country. They’ve been displaced; they have nothing. Their grief feels insurmountable. The mother with her young children, the grandmother who lost her husband and home, the soldier who can no longer fight without limbs. The heart of another has opened. 

The year of the heart refers to when unconditional love becomes the rule of the game. When love looked over its shoulder and didn’t turn back but looked ahead and saw what it could do. Love is the name of the game, and love rules. 

When the master of disaster makes his pitch to try to destroy people and create chaos, love still rules because people reached across borders of countries or boundaries or oceans and still took each other in and looked for ways to comfort and create space for those who had no more tears to shed for their loved ones and homes which were lost. Soldiers protecting their wives and families separated from what was dear to them, may or may not have come home, found shelter, so many sleeping in subways, the new way to survive. 

And still the heart reached out and took them in.

My dear, we have a lot to learn. Disasters will come, and trauma may never go away completely, but our path is one of evolution. The path is the way of the heart. 2022 saw it happen. When the sheltering ones lost sight of the moon for months and their food and water became scarce but their music and their love for their families and life kept them going, sharing with one another gave them strength to go on. 

Those who cause pain or despise what is different, have lost sight of their own heart. Perhaps their experience as children taught them to withdraw from others who had love as children or adults growing up. Fear and anger prevent us from seeing Truth. Forgiveness is a gift we give ourselves. Anything is possible. 

When we choose to go beyond the boundaries of the traditional forms of loving relationships, and who can love who, who can protect, marry,  adopt or give birth, raise children in loving home (whether it is a home with one daddy or two, one mommy or two), the heart wins. Love rules. When all the traditional and non-traditional families, with abled and disabled children, of all races and religions love each other, when we fight for the rights of those who can’t speak when we go past boundaries or bullies, love rules. We love because our hearts are full and overflowing.

Those who are widows and have seen the death of their mates, lovers, spouses, children, they know that love lingers on. They know that love is forever and lasts from one life to the next life. Yes, we know this, and we know that the heart loves, past forever. We know this because we experience this. We may not understand it, but it just is. 

Love is at the center of all things, physically or metaphysically. The challenges we face during Covid, losing loved ones bravely or brazenly, braving the waves of viruses, we are battling for our bodies, our countries, and our lives. The battles of war, however archaic, are not the last word. 

Because in the meantime, and in the end, the heart wins, and love rules. We are still evolving—because it is not perfected yet, this thing called the heart, this thing called love. We still have far to go. We will always look back and regret if we didn’t love enough or tell others enough that we love them. We are awakening, no matter how slowly. 

Love rules. The heart wins. And is still beating.

mini bio 

rev. lisa roma w. is an interfaith minister ordained by James Twyman. 

A multi-creative woman, lisa roma is a mother, an artist, and a teacher. She is a guitar playing songpoet, a published writer, editor, photographer and poet. She is a publication designer and a cat mommy. She is working on various literary projects for others as well as her own memoirs, poetry books, a musical theater project, a screenplay, children’s books, and various other forms of communication. She is founder-director of Creative Women’s Network, The Half Moon Theatre Company, and other entities and organizations in process. She has worked with for-profit and not-for-profit organizations such as the Simon Wiesenthal Center, NYC; and Midwood Development Corp., Brooklyn. lisa roma is a Literary and Arts Liaison who designs logos, brochures, business tools, digital press kits, and promotional services. Her unique visual art designs combine the use of watercolor, ink and calligraphy for wedding ketubahs, greeting cards, and posters, growing from her unique illustrated and hand-lettered first poetry book at age 18 to illustrated manuscripts of spiritual wisdom and mystical experiences today.

Lisa is responsible for the editing and design of Theresa Contaxis’s The Littlest Sailboat book. 

She can be reached via email at CreativWomenNtwk@aol.com. You can listen to some of her original music at http://www.soundcloud.com/electrikgoddess lisaroma. 

Her new website is under reconstruction but feel free to check back from time to time via http://www.creativewomensnetwork.com. lisa is a freelance editor for http://www.IPBooks.net. 

Thank you for being your best and loving self. Wishing peace, love and healing blessings to all.