Let Your Heart Sing
Fifteen-year-old Kristen sat in my office, looking as
if she were carrying the weight of the world on her shoulders. Kristen, normally
well-behaved, had recently started acting out, and her parents
were concerned. Her grades were slipping, she wasn’t keeping
to her curfews, and the week prior, she took her parents’ car,
without permission, and without a license.
The youngest of three children, Kristen felt as if she just couldn’t
measure up. “My brother got the smarts. And my sister, well,
she’s just a natural athlete.” Both of them had gotten
scholarships into college, and Kristen, just a sophomore, felt
as if she didn’t have a chance. So she stopped trying. “What’s
the point,” she said, as she shrugged her shoulders. “I’ll
never measure up.”
I looked at Kristen and saw what she apparently did not; a beautiful
young woman, bright and talented in her own right. How often, I
wondered, do we each do the same thing Kristen was doing; so busy
comparing ourselves to others that we are blinded to the light
that we also are.
“What do you love to do?” I asked her. “What’s
the one thing that, when you do it, everything else disappears?”
Kristen didn’t hesitate. “I love to sing,” she
shared. And in an instant, I watched as Kristen became bright,
transformed, and shared her love of performing, and what it’s
like to watch the faces of others as she sings and gathers them
into herself.
And then suddenly, it was gone. “But there are no scholarships
for singing,” she muttered. “What’s the point?”
Both of us sat silent for a moment. And then, I remembered that
earlier that week, I had seen an old rerun of the Wizard of Oz.
I hadn’t seen that movie in years, and I had watched with
new found appreciation for the richness of the movie’s message.
Then, much to my surprise, I heard myself say, “But don’t
you see Kristen, singing is your yellow brick road. Your job is
to follow that joy wherever it leads you, and trust that it will
take you places you can’t even imagine right now. Your brother
and sister, they can’t travel this road. It belongs only
to you. But if you don’t take it—if you don’t
let your heart sing, you’ll never know what your life could
have been.”
Every single one of us has a yellow brick road. It may
be an actual talent, like Kristen, but it doesn't have to be. Anything
that bring you joy qualifies: playing with your grandchildren,
digging around
in your garden, laughing with friends, watching a sunset. What
it is that bring you joy, cultivate it, nurture it, make time for
it.
In this new year, may you find joy in the simple pleasures that
let your heart sing. There's no telling where it will take you.
Until next time…
Be well!
marina
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