Musings on Loss, Opening the Heart & Public Speaking

This blog post has nothing to do with public speaking and everything to do with opening the heart.  Well, certainly opening the heart is needed to be great at speaking.  Come to think of it, the heart pounding out of the chest that so many people experience in fear of public speaking is because those people are blocking the flow of energy into the heart, chest and throat areas.  When they are willing to let energy flow fully through the heart and out to listeners, they fall in love with their audiences.

So, OK back to my heart tonight.  My heart is not into blogging for the past three weeks.  My heart has been in trying to find my beloved cat Jasper who sneaked out of our house unseen three weekends ago and who has disappeared into the densely populated neighborhoods and streets that surround us.  Whenever I have an extra hour, I am not thinking of blogging, just which area to drive around in hopes of showing up at the same place that Jasper is at.  My husband and I have done that – just driven up to the same corner at the same time. So why can’t I do that with Jasper?

I’m telling the story of losing Jasper because loss is how the heart opens.  When we lose something or someone we love, the heart has to stretch open to hold the energy that is released in the sadness.  Loss causes the heart to fill with feelings of sadness, but filling that part of the body only allows more love to move into the spaces of the heart. If there is a lesson or blessing in my story it is that I love more now than three weeks ago.  Love for an animal can be as profound as love for a person.  And I loved that cat Jasper!

On Tuesday when I speak to the Galleria ABWA, I will have more love to share because my heart has been stretched open by the fullness of missing Jasper, the cat.