MP900442526Several years ago I prayed one of the most dangerous prayers one could ever vocalize. At the time, I hadn’t put too much thought into this request. I mean I was serious, but I wasn’t very specific. Looking back, I’m not sure how meant it. It wasn’t premeditated, in fact I can’t imagine what drove me to wish such a thing. Certainly I was already existing in this state of being… Or was I?

My prayer was this:

Let me be open…

Simple huh? I thought so too, but it was much deeper than that.

What I received in exchange for this seemingly uncomplicated petition was much bigger than anything I could ever have imagined. In an instant I was transformed into an emotional semiconductor.

All at once I began to cry during commercials, TV shows, and movies. I began randomly pouring my heart out to the people I love in person, by text, and on the phone. I, having never met a stranger, started touching people (appropriately) that I didn’t even know, in passing, during brief conversations, while laughing, and just because.

My heart began to swell while

– drinking tea at the kitchen counter

– driving down the street in silence

– listening to unemotional toe-tappin’ songs

– in line at the grocery store

– at the post office

– trolling the internet

– for no apparent reason

Those four little words: Let me be open… changed my life.

I was unexpectedly given permission to feel EVERYTHING! I had no idea that I had been sleepwalking through my life in so many ways.

Who knew a whispered devotion could have such a profound impact on who I was, how I lived, and the future I didn’t even know I wanted?

This muffled invocation turned me inside out. It triggered a monsoon of feelings. I discovered a tenderness that I never knew existed inside of me. I had unearthed a new way of being.

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I have fallen in love with feeling and I never want to stop. tweet this

While I have never uttered this prayer since, it’s not because I’m afraid the flood gates will once again be loosed, but because I am still riding the wave of the first swell, and it’s beautiful.