I have been to visit my secret place many times since I discovered it a few weeks ago. It seems that every time I go, I notice something new. The last few times I’ve been intrigued by a massive rock — probably four times my height and half as wide — which is split straight down the middle. Of course I am curious about what caused this split. It seems as if it would have to be something quite significant to split a rock so large. As I’ve sat with the cracked rock, I begin to hear its wisdom.
I understand being split. My heart has experienced this more than once. Sometimes the split comes because of loss and the heart, unable to hold the amount of pain, simply cracks open. Sometimes the split comes because of abandonment. A part of my true nature is unacceptable to someone and so they reject it. Often I join in, also rejecting that part of myself. This can cause a split. Sometimes the split comes because of life. If you live long enough it’s almost certain that life will deliver some brutal blows, and sometimes these blows are too heavy for the heart and so it cracks. Other times the split simply comes from shifting ground.
This split means that life can never go back to what it was. We all have areas of our life where we have been cracked open. Change can be terribly uncomfortable, even brutal. But when I look at the cracked rock, I notice that it has something to say to me about being opened up.
I notice how still he stands. There is no resistance to this crack. It simply is. I wonder what would happen if I could come to the compassionate place of simply accepting what is — not resisting, not controlling, not fixing. Just being with my reality and holding that with a gentle and loving gaze.
I notice, too, that beauty is springing out of the crack. The color of life pours out — brilliant greens and the happy yellow of wildflowers. It is full of growth and without the crack, could the rock have born such abundance?
The third thing I notice is how the crack affords a home for creatures and critters. It has used its brokenness to offer a place of hospitality for those in need. Whoever wants to come is welcome. Because of its brokenness, it is able to shelter many.
I stand from where I am sitting, walk closer to the cracked rock, and take a photo. We humans like to believe that we are so smart but I am finding that sometimes it’s the dumb rocks that hold the deepest wisdom. Perhaps if we open our eyes to see, the world is waiting to shower us with an abundance of beauty, wisdom, and delight. Perhaps if we open our hearts to receive, there is a never-ending stream of goodness waiting to come to us. Perhaps in the cracked rock I can find a sort of kindred spirit, and perhaps this will help soothe the loneliness of a heart cracked wide open.