Song Of The Heart

Do what makes your heart sing. Take actions, both large and small, that truly resonate with the vibration of your spirit. Behave in accordance with The Call of Your Essence. Play the Unique Song of Your Own Heart. 

What does that mean in real life? Well, for example, it means painting your house bright purple, because you just love that color. It means going for that part in the play that is, apparently, way beyond your ability and experience, but that you love so much you just have to go for it. It means not wearing a shirt, or wearing THAT shirt, just because you bloody well want to. Because, it makes your heart sing. And when your heart sings, you can hear it. I can hear it. And in that, you create the opportunity for us to connect. You create the opportunity for us to love one another. 

I believe that, at the very deepest essence of all of us, there's is the Universal Common Denominator of Spirit. At the very depths of each of us, we are pure love. Yes. That I believe. However, since the reality is that, the vast majority of us seekers will never get to the level of pure enlightenment like The Buddha, or Jesus, or Mohammad (choose your prophet),  there is value in connecting to that within us that is just as real. Just as valuable. Just as nurturing to our own journey, as enlightenment. I call that part The Music of Our Soul. The song of Our Unique Self. Some may call that, in rather dismissive terms, Our Personality. 

There is lots of psychobabble about personality. I don't care about that right now. I'm describing our personality, our True Personality, as a combination of our earthly selves and our other worldly selves; and believe that it is in fact very valuable to our journey. I don't dismiss it. Maybe some will transcend the personality to achieve true enlightenment, but again, the reality is that most of us will never get there. So why not embrace a more realistic paradigm as we seek higher ground?

My definition of Personality in this context is kinda Zen; it incorporates the divine and the human, where both are equally sacred. When I am acting in accordance with my highest form of spirit and my highest form of physical self, then I feel truly divine. We are all One, like the ocean; but even the ocean has individual molecules, atoms, quarks, and quantum particulars that are each unique. Each of us are like those individual unique particles. Don't completely eschew that to become completely one, with anything, or with anybody. Keep that piece of You that is all you. Because people love that about you. People love that about me.. And in this physical realm, in the nuts and bolts of the human experience, The Unique You is a big factor in what makes you connect to those who love you. Being your own individual self functions as your unique calling of becoming part of the whole tribe. If not, then we are all the same; identical quantum particles in one big ocean of oneness. And that sounds pretty fucking boring. 

Developing a self that is true to our nature is like writing the song of your heart, the song of your own unique essence. It's playing the music of who you are for the world to hear and see and experience. And, the truth is that some people are not going to like that song. Just like nobody likes every song on the radio. Musicians who write music from their hearts, and then bleed it on the stage, can not be concerned with who's going to like it and who's not. If they do, they're just trying to please the masses; their just writing vapid, soulless pop hits. Which is probably why I don't like a lot of Top 40 shit. Most of it doesn't have any soul.

We all want to be loved. I want to be loved. But I want to be loved for who I am. I shoot for authenticity, as best I can. That's what people truly connect to. Or not. Make it real or go home. And that process is a perpetual work in process. We are a perpetual work in process. I want to be in that game for life. I want to be in that game with myself, and with you, for life. We can play together. Sing together. Jam together. Love together.

Love yourself, or don't. Let me tell you, however, that the cost of not loving yourself is high. Too high. I've learned that the hard way. We all learn that the hard way (some harder than others). When I push myself away, I push you away. When I don't sing, nobody hears me. Nobody sees me. I don't buy that old adage that "You can't love somebody else until you love yourself". I cry Bullshit on that line. Because for most of my life, I have experienced a lack of self love. And don't tell me that for most of my life I haven't loved anyone. Or that others haven't loved me. 

What I do know, however, is that the kind of love I experience when I increase my love of self is much different. It's fuller. More beautiful. More explosively vibrant. When my song is more in harmony with my heart, it's a passionate cry of my own truth at maximum volume. And if loud music isn't your bag, that's okay. We can still find a way to jam together. The stage of human love is an infinitely vast one.

Just don't expect me to turn it down.

©2017 Clint Piatelli, MuscleHeart LLC, and Red F Publishing. All rights reserved.

Scary Risky Poetry

Lovers everywhere: write each other poetry. Then share it with one another. Sound scary? Afraid you can't write poetry? Good. That means this is a stretch. A risk. A jump off a cliff where you can't see the water. Where you have to have faith. In yourself. In each other.

Those very things are the ingredients for excitement, for newness, for discovery. Finding something out about your partner you might not know. Creating something from your heart and sharing it with someone you love. Being vulnerable. Cultivating Intimacy. Deepening connection. Love. 

From experience I can tell you that this is a beautiful practice. And it can be a prelude to some dynamite love making. When you put yourself out there for your lover, you not only show that you care, but that you're willing to put your neck on the chopping block. That you truly show up for each other. And that's very sexy. Writing poetry to each other is like the kind of risks you took with one another when you were first mutually wooing and falling in love. Those risks are necessary in the beginning, because you don't know each other, and the only way to get to know each other is to lay it out there, the best you can, and see what happens. 

Well, I maintain that those types of risks are precisely the risks you need to take with each other as your relationship matures, grows, and stabilizes. Because when you no longer take risks with each other, things start getting stale. Writing poetry to one another is one simple way to take a risk that can put some zing back into things. 

Anybody who is literate can write poetry. It just takes some courage, some willingness, and some vulnerability. It takes mutual respect and safety. And it can also build those very traits it requires, no matter how small the quantity of those qualities are in the beginning. It's a way to reconnect to each other. 

Don't make it out to be more difficult or scarier than it really is. If you have trouble opening your heart, writing poetry can be a gentle crowbar. 

I share with you a poem I wrote for a very special woman. I'm not sure if I had the opportunity to share it with her or not. But we wrote poems to each other. And it was beautiful. 

Take the risk. Bear more of yourself than you dare. And see what happens. There will be some magic there. Be available for that magic. Look for it. It's there. In the words you write. In the sharing you do. In the beats between your hearts.

For You With You By You

i wish 

for just a moment

you could crawl inside my heart 

and feel what I feel 

for you

for no other reason

than to share 

with the only other person that this matters to

a singular, unique, expression

that has never made sense

that will never make sense

even to me

unless i share it

with you

like one hand clapping

there is no meaningful sound

unless it is echoed

by that very special other

by you

 - Clint Piatelli

©2016 Clint Piatelli, MuscleHeart LLC, and Red F Publishing. All rights reserved.