Saturday, September 15, 2007

bread for the world

more thoughts on bread...

Hulling My Heart...Making Room for a Dream

Today in an early morning dream I was addressed by a voice. It asked, "What are you doing?" and I answered, "I am hulling my heart."

The voice asked, "Why?" and I answered, "I have need of a hulled heart."

I awoke, as I have so often this year, knowing that in my sleep I was at work on my life, convinced that if I dug in its soil long enough, deep enough, it would yield me a liberating truth. Is that truth in the metaphor 'hulled heart'?

I think only of pulling off the green leaves of strawberries that the fruit may be eaten. But hulling means more than that. We strip corn and peas of husks and pods to reach the inner fruit. What are the hard, protective casings around my heart that must be stripped away to reach the hidden grain? What must I give up to lie all bare and exposed like peas in a pod or corn on a cob? What are the wrappings that keep the essence of my life from becoming bread for the world?

Elizabeth O'Connor

via

2 comments:

Trudging said...

Hmmmmmm, that is a good one.

Anonymous said...

I found it interesting that the dream message was that the heart needed to be "hulled". My mind went immediately to corn because of a recent dream I had about my brother knifing me in the back in an attempt to steal my inheritance - an ear of corn. My brother was telling me today in our Dream Circle that scientists were aware of neurons in the brain and the power they had to manifest in the physical world but only recently discovered that we also have these same neurons in our heart and they are 50 times more powerful - all the more reason for us to be operating from a "hulled heart" or in other words an open heart. A group of us did an interesting exercise last year as part of a book study - for a week check in with yourself now and again throughout the day to see if your heart was open or closed. You could actually feel the difference and it was almost impossible to go around with an open heart all day long - it just left you feeling so vulnerable. And it made me also realize that it would not be wise to go around with our heart wide open all the time. But a little more awareness of when and where and with whom my heart is open or closed would be of benefit.