ARTICLE:

A Parable
The Wounded Heart

By Nancy Joy Hefron

Every now and then there arrives a message from spirit so profound that you are left changed forever more. Such is the story I share with you now for there will be those of you to whom this tale speaks. It is a story of an angel and a small child whose love and understanding of the value of pain in our lives opened my heart to a great new depth of understanding.

I was seeing so many of my clients and friends in physical and emotional pain that I sought the council of Spirit through my dreamtime. I fell to sleep that night asking my higher self to bring forth wisdom so that I may better understand and assist those in pain.

Sometime during the night a beautiful energy called me from deep sleep and asked me to journey with her into the wisdom of the heart. She led me back in time in Iowa (the Heartland) to a place where all the people were living in fear. We visited homes where children were not allowed out of the house. There apparently was a sinister being about who was randomly shooting the people through the heart with arrows and killing them. There seemed to be no rhyme or reason for the cruel acts. No one ever saw the perpetrator yet no group was left untouched by the pain of loss and sorrow. Everyone was under suspicion and there was no trust among the people. Neighbor turned on neighbor and friend on friend. The heart of the land was gripped by fear. I ached for the pain I felt.

My guide then took me out onto the land...to the beautiful fields and flowing hills of wild flowers and forest I know as Iowa. As I looked across the land, I saw the land waves of Iowa surrounding me with the love of mother earth and all fear and pain were forgotten. We were riding my paint horse, Randy and laughing and galloping across the fields. We came upon two small children standing in the field. They seem to have come from nowhere. As I stopped to visit with them, the boy asked if they could ride my horse. Knowing the heart of Randy, I was delighted to share. As I dismounted and looked into the eyes of the girl my heart opened with waves of love. There was such love in those eyes, so unconditional and compassionate. I was profoundly affected. I lifted the boy up and then placed the girl in front of him and handed him the reigns.

As Randy trotted off across the land waves, I was entranced with the joy of Spirit filling me. Suddenly, there was a swish through the wind and an arrow pierced the heart of the small, beautiful girl. She screamed in pain, grabbing at the wound and falling from the horse. I was immediately filled with anger. I turned to my guide to protest the scene but she was gone. As I raced to the fallen child, I felt sick inside. I bent down and cradled her in my arms as she sobbed in pain, struggling for breath. As I looked into her eyes, I was amazed. They had not changed but were filled with love. Out of her eyes came tears of blood! I knew she was dying and I whispered to her, "Dear one, if you would just stop breathing, the pain would be gone and you could return home again to God." As the last word fell from my lips, this precious being smiled and her breathing relaxed. Her eyes filled me with loving understanding and I heard her voice inside my heart say, " Do you not understand, Nancy. It is to breathe into the pain in your heart. That is the pathway home again to God."

As my heart filled with a vibrant, passionate energy, the scene shifted back to my bedroom where we had started. The child was lying on my bed, still holding the arrow in her heart, which was no longer bleeding or causing her pain. The scene was so present that my husband, Mark, lay asleep by her side with my kitty at his feet. I stood by the side of the bed with a healer and friend of mine and she told me to remove the arrow from the child's heart so it could heal. As I bent down close, I asked her if I could remove the arrow so her wound would heal. Again she smiled and her eyes shown the wisdom of spirit and love I was so drawn to. She slowly and gracefully lifted her small hand, wrapped it around the arrow and gently pulled the lance from her heart. As she did, the arrow disappeared and her heart was totally healed. The room filled with an indescribable light and presence and as I stood there, the small child and the angelic presence that had guided me, merged into one. She reached out and placed her hand on my heart and encouraged me saying, "NancyJoy, tell all the people that only when they acknowledge the gift of the wound, breath into the pain and find the strength within them to remove the arrow will their hearts heal and know Spirit in all their being. The fear and rejection of the wound is causing the physical and emotional pain." Slowly her image faded, but the room and my heart remained filled with a new powerful light of understanding.

So I share this story from my heart to yours, that together we may support and love one another as we ask Spirit to reveal our wounded hearts, breath into the painful feelings that arise and release the old patterns that no longer serve the expansion of the light within ourselves. To me this story speaks of facing our fears, feeling and expressing our feelings and activating our light bodies. The pain and hurt we have been hiding from is the doorway. Could this truly be the "going home"? I hear my heart leap with joy and shout, "YES!"