Open heart Open mind, Closed mind Closed heart!

While it will come as no surprise to you the second part of the title closed mind equals a closed heart, you can see how the inverse can also be accurate. Thinking back on the poem I wrote two days ago I came to realize just how powerful the mind really is.  For it is the mind that creates the walls that protect our heart from the pain of love lost.  Whatever the reason for the wound you suffered, whether real or perceived, the mind takes steps to make sure you have time to grieve and heal.  It creates invisible boundaries that keep everyone and everything out.  But what happens when the pain has dulled and time has healed the wound?  The answer my friends is nothing.  Those walls that have been built remain in place and if you don't understand this check out my entry "If these walls could talk...what would they say?" http://bryanzepp.blogspot.com/2012/07/if-these-walls-could-talkwhat-would.html

Our hearts are fragile things that can be bruised easily. Shattered if betrayed and trust is lost.  The wounds of love are the hardest felt and take the longest time to heal.  Then comes doubts and fears, you begin questioning everyone's motives when they enter your life.  A friend of mine calls this period the "Distrusting Factor", which can last a very very long time.  It is during this period that you find you can't trust anyone including yourself, because you are so afraid that whatever you went through is just going to happen all over again.  You tend to hold everyone you meet and could possibly care about at arms length.  You prevent them from getting too close to you both mentally and emotionally.

Now what happens if you meet someone or are introduced to someone and you are in this crippled state?  How do you think they are going to act and feel?  I will tell you, because I know from first hand experience.  They are going to like you and want to be with you, but because you are so closed off you are going to miss all the signs. They are going to feel like you ignored them and left them hanging.  It takes a very special and patient person to understand all of this.  They are going to have to loving and persistent if they ever hope to break through those walls.  They may even walk away and come back, because remember you have inflicted pain and wounded them whether it was intentional or not by spurning their advances and leaving them hanging.

This special person is someone who is strong and can get passed the pain and recognize that they need and want you.  In my case the person still has wounds of his last relationship but somehow tore down his own walls and dared to care and love again. His caring and understanding has been shown over and over again no matter how far apart we are.  It seems like every important moment that happens in his life, he includes me on.  I am usually the first one he calls or text to tell what happened and this is what has made me feel so special. It is through his persistence and unfailing efforts that the walls around my heart have finally started to fall.  The words of praise and encouragement that he extends my way about my passion and my writing is so amazing.  Especially because he is so talented himself that I stand amazed that he thinks I have even an inkling of talent.  His words over the past few days have brought in sharp relief that if I don't open my hear and trust my feelings again, that I might end up stuck alone with a closed mind and a closed heart.

How do you get to the point of opening your heart and mind? You may be wondering.  As with a lot of our discussions, you have to start within and work your way out. Now I admit that it is easier if you have someone that is already interested in you  that can help you tentatively stretch out the tender tendrils of love, trust, and caring.  But, if you don't have that you are going to have to find within yourself the strength to take the steps to put your heart and feelings back out there and try again.  Taking it slow is okay! Get comfortable trusting your feelings, learn how to feel comfortable returning someone else's feelings. Once you get to that point you are going to be amazed at how well that "Leap of Faith" paid off.  Once your heart is open and free to love again. Your walls around your mind will be gone for good as well.

You must confront and overcome your fears, suppress your insecurities and doubts, just put yourself out there. Remember, it is just like riding a bike, when your fall off you get back up and try again.  Give yourself encouragement by keeping in mind that you deserve the best, you have a right to be happy, to feel loved and love in return.  You are so strong and can do this...I have total faith in you!  Embrace life and love and do what makes you feel happy and feels good.  Remember it is never good to keep those walls up, because while they are there you are missing every opportunity to meet the right person, your soul-mate, your best friend that is always on your mind.  Before you know it, once you have found them you aren't going to want to let them go. You are going to want to be where ever they are and totally involved with their lives.

So remember open heart open mind, closed mind closed heart.  Take the chance, take a leap of faith, put your heart back on your sleeve and Love again! Because when you do you are going to realize that you are once again living! Because for so long you were just existing, getting by, being safe and never loving or being loved.

As always my hopes and dreams are with you,

Uncle B

Immortality, symbolic isn't it?

I have been playing around with the thought of immortality lately.  Ponce De Leon went in search of the fountain of youth, he wanted to live forever. He never found it but in a way he achieved what he was looking for.  Immortality, his name is going to live on in history for his adventure and his discoveries.  Though he was looking for a way to fend off Death, it inevitably came to claim him and he passed from our existence into the next.  Movie stars, actors and actresses, writers, singers, politicians all in their own way become immortalized. It doesn't mean that they are still alive and with us. As a matter of fact many have passed on already, but their likeness or art is with us still.  Whether locked in the written prose of words, that makes up a novel or book, or captured on celluloid which is film stock a part of them lives on in the world.  I know this isn't what people mean by living forever, but it is a form of immortality.  As long as someone somewhere remembers them, they are still with us.

Most people don't even realize that the life they are living is taking them on the path to immortality and living beyond their own lifetime.  Some don't even get recognized for their efforts until after they have passed from the mortal life, yet some type of record of their life remains.  Anne Frank was a young jewish girl whose diary has made her immortal and someone remembered in our world.  Who is to say that your life is not important?  Who can tell you that what you are doing today will not have an impact on the future that is yet to come?  None of know, because life is but a fleeting thing.  Our lives in the cosmic scale are but small blink of the eye in universal terms.

Some people go out and search for fame and fortune, others seem to be born into it.  Where we all fit in is a great mystery. What makes one person successful and another not so successful? It isn't the lack of trying or motivation.  It seems almost prearranged somehow.  If you are not born here and into this family, you are just going to be an average joe.  However, history is filled with average joe's who have made a difference and have ensured their own place of immortality.  We know and are taught that no one person is better than another, that we all enter the world the same way and leave it too.  What happens in between and the paths we choose are what divines us and gives us worth and character.  It seems so very strange to be talking about this and trying to grasp and comprehend the meaning of it all.  But one thing keeps coming to mind as I think about this.  The human body is just an elaborate machine that is run by a highly sophisticated super computer, the brain.  The body wears out over time and get tired and run down. However what runs the body is energy.

From physics we know that energy cannot be destroyed, it can only be manipulated and changed.  Therefore, I believe that there is something more to life after this shell of a body gives out. Because if energy cannot be destroyed, then the energy of the body is what gives us life, and since it cannot be destroyed it must go somewhere or be transmuted into another form.  Hence the theory of reincarnation  has come to be.  Reincarnation is the belief that when this body dies the spirit of the person is reborn into another form or person.  Meaning that the energy that is used to power this body finds a new host or place to live in and life continues in a ever widening circle.

Each of us has the potential to live forever, it is all up to us. How we live our life's and who is left behind to remember us.  Immortality doesn't mean that you are going to personally live forever, just some aspect of you will continue to exist in those that remember you.  Keep that in mind the next time you meet someone new.  You never know who meeting that person is going to affect your future and how well you are remembered by those you leave behind you.

Just something to think about and something I have been pondering on. I look forward to your comments and feedback.  Lets talk about some of the topics I write about and get a discussion and dialog going.  I hope you will join my blog and become a part of my ever increasing readership.  I want to encourage you to take the time to reach out and talk to me.  I want to hear from you.

As always my hopes and dreams are with you,

Uncle B