Open the Gate

               One gentle word opens a gate of iron.
                              ~ Bulgarian Proverb


The movie PHENOMENON is one of my all time favorites as it offers many wonderful insights, but author Mark Nepo focuses on John Travolta's character who is obsessed with building a fence to keep a rabbit outside of his garden.  No matter how secure the fence, the rabbit continues to eat all of the plants.  This minor theme is laced throughout the movie and finally offers tremendous insight.  The character John Travolta is playing, decides one night to leave the gate of the fenced garden open.  He patiently waits until the lesson unfolds.  Well into the night, the rabbit hops out of the fenced garden through the gate into freedom!

"How often do we barricade and fence up or lives against hurt and loss, thinking we're
keeping the painful things out, when they're already trapped inside of us eating at our roots, and what we really need to do is to open the gate and let them out," says Mark Nepo in his book, THE BOOK OF AWAKENING. 

Mr. Nepo encourages us to look within and examine what we think we are trying to keep out of our heart ... a memory or a truth of what is happening right now.  He suggests: 

1.)  Close your eyes and open the gate to your heart and wait. 
2.)  Breathe slowly and give the rabbit a chance to leave your garden.

If we can find the courage to open our hearts, to be vulnerable in life using compassion and forgiveness, our gardens hopefully will flourish!