The Garden: The Heart knows when the search is over

This is one phrase that caught my attention this week. Before now I never quite understood what it meant neither did I believe that a search could ever be over.

For me for as long as you are alive the search never stops. Naturally as humans we are always seeking for something more – it’s never enough – and even when we get the more that we so much desire  it is only a matter of time until it is no longer enough and then the search continues.

Just last week I experienced a very historic moment in my life where I got reunited with  an old friend after 10 years of not seeing each other. This is someone I knew and I was close with some 14 years ago. Never in my life could I ever imagine that a decade later in another country, is where we would get to meet again. The very day I saw him again it was as if he never left, the reconnection was automatic and almost instant, I’d say the satellite signal was very strong. Of course there were evident changes as expected -I mean a lot happens within a decade-  from the both of us and as expected-however it was as if I last spoke to him just last week. Just in a few moments I received the signal from my most trusted organ-the heart- “the search is over” and immediately I felt a peace in my heart that surpasses all understanding. I’ve been the happiest since and everything else in between has become irrelevant. Every now and again the brain says perhaps you should wait it out and see how it plays out over time and I listen and smile and say of course but deep in my heart I know that everything else is just a matter of allowing the process otherwise the heart already knows.

This experience inspired this week’s article on The Garden “The heart knows when the search is over”.  Apart from it being an organ, the heart is so important because blood provides your body with the oxygen and nutrients it needs and also carries away waste. Your heart is sort of like a pump, or two pumps in one. The heart therefore serves physical, spiritual functions equally important to us. For instance, when we harbour bitterness, unforgiveness and all other negative emotions in our hearts , it is only a matter of time before we start seeing the manifestation of those play out on our body and in our lives. Likewise when our hearts are at peace and we harbour good thoughts, love and joy we see those come to play in our physical life.

Some years ago I was faced with a tough decision to make and I remember consulting with one of my confidants who is also my pastor and he said to me you are going to find peace in your heart about what you must do and so pay attention and heed to the call and truly that is what happened. Since those years I have learnt to pray over matters and I have also learnt to listen to the heart for answers.  Today I can tell you that my heart usually knows -I pay attention to its state whether it is in peace or not-and because it serves such an important function, I guard it.

You would swear that the heart has a mind of its own. You hear people say “ follow your heart” a doctor once said to me “eat with the brain and not with the heart” some one could easily use the words “My heart tells me this….” R Kelly the musician in one of his songs says “My heart is telling me no but my body is telling me yes” Now when you put all of these to consideration , you must come to the realisation that indeed the heart has a mind of its own. Perhaps the heart is the sixth sense which was never added officially to our senses in as much as some would argue that the heart has no sense.  When it comes to matters of the heart, surely the heart ought to take prevalence. Only that often times we dare not trust it because somehow we are of the believe that the heart is deceptive.

If for whatever reason before today you never knew how important the heart is, I would like to draw your attention to the revelation that your heart is your altar. It is your point of harbour for spiritual and soulful matters. Guard it with all your might because therein flows the fountain of life. Learn to trust your heart, learn to listen to it and learn to heed to its call it is designed to help us in this thing called life.