My Heart Opened

​Life’s challenges have a way of closing off one’s heart.  I know they have for me.  When challenges have come along, I’ve found myself wrapping up in cotton wool, tightly like a blanket, closing myself off from the world.  I was safe there and couldn’t feel the hurt, the confusion, the overwhelm.
Then one day, I pulled apart the fibers of the cotton wool that surrounded me, and peeked out.  The world didn’t seem so scary. 
I opened my heart a bit and waited to see what would happen.  There was silence, a quiet stillness, then wisdom crept in.
​I began to realize that as well as the cotton wool keeping out hurtful things, it also kept out kind and loving things.  To feel them, I would need to unwrap.