When Your Heart is Wide Open

My daughter is getting married this week.

I know, I know. This isn't FaceBook.

LinkedIn is for business.

But in my world -- in the world of life coaching -- my heart is in my business and my business in my heart.

Integration, not compartmentalizing. Life is not in boxes.

There is pain in trying to keep parts of ourselves and our lives separated from the rest.

So here I am.

I am so excited for my daughter's wedding, I can barely sleep.

I am thinking about the toast I will make to 170 guests who have gathered to celebrate this couple's love and commitment to each other.

I am also thinking about how fast this time in life has come -- that while raising children was painfully slow and isolating at times, now it seems like it is over so fast.

There are these beautiful adult humans after all that.

These beautiful humans who miraculously were born to me. Now, because of their love for another, all these people are gathering in Minneapolis to celebrate love.

My actual family is small. But on my daughter's wedding day, my family, my tribe, my community, will be very large.

When I get a head of myself, I imagine that I will feel the sadness of it being over, that we can't experience that every day.

But why can't we? Why can't we see ourselves as part of something bigger, all in the name of love?

I'm going to try to integrate the feeling of my daughter's wedding day, into my life every day.

The feeling of belonging to something bigger than myself.

The feeling of belonging to a tribe of humans, all of whom believe in and are committed to love.

How about you? What reminds you that you are a part of something larger than yourself?

Is it getting outside and walking? Sitting on a park bench?