“It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.” ~ Antoine de Saint-Exupery, “The Little Prince”

If one’s soul can be summarized in one sentence, the above quotation from “The Little Prince” summarizes mine.

I have been enchanted with these words since the first time I encountered them in my 20s, when every part of my interior being lit up and said “Yes!” I had found the words that I felt described my way of being in the world, offering me validation after feeling ‘different’ from others my entire life.

As someone with a deeply contemplative nature, I tend to quietly observe what is going on around me, even when I am in groups of people. I often pick up on details others miss: tone of voice, flickers of expression on faces, body language and more.

You can read a lot about a room filled with people by just sitting back quietly and watching it all unfold, while also looking and listening from your heart space. You see the ways people interact with one another, and how many spend their lives trying to fit in with others, even if it means sacrificing their own authenticity.

In spending time with others, you can often piece together an understanding of what motivates them and the complexity of their character and life story. Although this understanding will be incomplete, it can, if you allow it, help you to engage with others with more empathy, compassion and understanding.

You can offer these gifts as a natural way of living out the golden rule: “Do unto others as you would have done unto you.”

Sadly, we live in a time when too many people don’t know who they are or what they think and believe. It takes time apart from the rest of the world and all of its noise to learn your unique way of being in the world. And time apart from the rest of the world takes courage to encounter parts of yourself you’d rather stay buried.

We are each burdened with wounds from various stages in our lives. We can offer empathy, compassion and understanding to others only when we dare to acknowledge our own wounds, and spend time apart in the healing presence of the holy Spirit, who gives us the strength and grace we need to bear sacred heart into the world.

We need only look to Jesus and how he consistently spent time apart from his disciples in prayer when he faced big decisions, or was experiencing what we call ‘burnout’ today. He needed to spend time alone to be restored for his ministry, a ministry with a solid foundation of living, seeing and offering healing from the heart.

Engaging with the world from the heart is not always easy. During these times of unmitigated destruction, ignorance and cruelty, those of us who try to live from the heart carry extra heavy spiritual and emotional loads.

We feel the profound collective pain in the world and are troubled by the cavalier response from those who have the authority to do something to stop it and don’t, as well as those who refuse to see what is happening right in front of their eyes, or to care for those who are the direct victims of inhumane policies and actions.

But it is precisely because we see and feel all of the cruelty, pain and destruction, that we have no choice but to continue to live and give from the heart. The alternative is to become numb, or worse, to turn into people who ignore the plight of our fellow humans and think only of ourselves.

And we simply cannot do that.

SPIRIT MATTERS is a weekly column by Jerrilyn Zavada Novak that examines experiences common to the human spirit. Contact her at jzblue33@yahoo.com.