My Word of the Year

I chose gratitude as my word of 2015. I constantly worked to create and cultivate this feeling in my everyday life through my gratitude jar. Gratitude filled my heart with acceptance, presence, awareness and ultimately love: love for what is, what has been and what could be. I find myself choosing a new word for 2016.

Due to my year of gratitude, I am radiating happiness from within so brightly that I can’t help myself. I can’t help but shine that energy outward.

And so I am led quite effortlessly to my word for 2016: sprout.

Sprout where I have planted my gracious heart and allow that love to grow like weeds and spread like wildfire wherever I go.

Sprout with my roots of understanding and awareness of my limitless soul and potential for spreading light.

Sprout with the knowledge I acquired from relentlessly watering my hungry heart last year.

Sprout with intention to discover the potential of my purpose as a light seeker, love dweller and infinite soul.

Sprout with the faith to trust another human with my heart and gently hold theirs in my palm.

Sprout with the dream I have placed on my heart and harness the power to create it step by step.

Sprout with the lessons I hold emblazoned on my heart as a reminder to live boldly and bravely always.

Sprout with the kindness and compassion that one gathers only by living with an open heart.

How will you grow in 2016? 

Ditch the resolutions and simply choose to sprout where you are planted. Know in your heart that you are perfect in this moment.

Always water your heart with more love than you think is needed. Only then will you have an overflow of joy to affect those around you.

Here are my tips for taking the love in your heart and spreading seeds of intention wherever you go:

Choose a random act of kindness that pervades the current state of our world with hope. Acts can involve money but favors and deeds will impact someone on a deeper level.

Befriend someone you know could use some uplifting and encouragement.

Hug longer and harder than you usually do and don’t be the one to let go first.

Pause in moments when you want to react adversely and choose to be your higher self.

Smile at strangers. You won’t know how much they need your light until you see it reflected in their reaction.

And if your 2016 is beginning in a dark place, choose to spread your kindness inward and love yourself through whatever battle you are facing.

You are love. You are enough. And you too can sprout after you put down loving roots in your heart.

A New Year to Rise

Close this year’s doornot in fear but in love. Love yourself enough to never look back, but face the new year with dreams in sight. Turn your shining self toward the coming year, filled with the possibility of a fearless, open heart. This year, let love in then let love grow. Find a place for gratitude to permeate your being. Manifest your intention with action-filled faith. Look toward the moon when darkness starts to fall. For the sun will always rise with a new chance to shine.

–—Karilyn Owens

The Basin of Love

In the beautiful heart space I occupy daily, my subconscious floats to uncharted waters to feel the depth of love in my heart. I drifted off to an alternate universal love last night that allowed my heart to soar and expand in new ways. I found myself escaping a less than ideal situation through a small opening in a gate where I took off on an adventure with a lover. As we held hands and ran from our past situation (heartbreak represented here), we embarked on a journey together where neither knew the destination.

We discovered a small, lush green valley along our route that held a pristine basin of water in its lowest point. We were left rather tattered and dirty from the trip (as most relationships do on the uprise), so we took a dip in the water, hands still entwined. We she'd our clothes to wash them in the water; as he undressed his musculature revealed and the suppleness of his skin glistened in the reflection of the basin. He moved toward me and placed his hands on my face. He felt the line of my jaw, the peaks of my cheekbones and the curve of my lips. His large hands cupped my face and he felt the shape of my head. We sat in silence as he felt the exchange of energy this encounter brought. I was so entranced by his soul that I never realized he was blind. His hands moved down to my chest as he felt the quickening palpitations of my heart. He noticed the size of my heart grow with every excited beat. 

As more time passed, the communication between our hearts filled the silent air. When he finally spoke, it was the first time I heard words from his lips. I had felt his heart speak but now it was audible. He told me, "I wanted to feel the beauty of your face through your structure. I wanted to feel the softness of your lips before they touch mine. I wanted to feel your heart beat before it became one with mine. And I wanted you to feel seen even without sight. I choose to recognize the way you feel not the way you look. I choose to feel the way you light up my soul simply because you are light. And I choose to linger in the spaces of your heart, the ones I fall into between each beat."

In that moment, I had never felt more seen by a soul before. And although I have the gift of sight, I didn't need it to feel the expanse of his soul. His soul told me everything I needed to know through the transfer of energy. If I am energy and he is energy, then there is no sight involved aside from the one our heart uses by feeling. 

The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched--they must be felt with the heart.

—Helen Keller 

He moved in closer to me, hands still on my heart. I moved my hand to his heart and could have cupped it in my hand for it was beating outside of his chest. I laid my head in place of my hand and listened to the sound of his heart beat, one profound thump after another. I could have stayed there for an eternity listening to the song in his heart, for it told me far more than the words in his mind could. That song told me everything I ever needed to know. 

I looked up into his eyes and although his gaze couldn't meet mine, he felt the beaming in them. His eyes were kind and innocent without the harsh pictures we have implanted in our minds. They were green with specks of hazel strewn about. He closed his eyes as I kissed each eye lid tenderly. I moved my lips toward his, my heated breath feeling it's way down his face. An electric shock made its way down my body as our lips embraced in a kiss.

His hands once again cupped my face as he passionately kissed my lips as if he were kissing my soul. Every ounce of energy rose in delight as our kiss lit up our bodies. There was penetration on a soul level where sex was not necessary. I moved my body closer to his as my arms wrapped tightly around his neck. Eyes closed and lips touching, I moved my hands around his skull and felt the ways in which he had blindly felt mine. 

I couldn't have felt the depth of his love if I weren't already a being of love. I couldn't have appreciated the ways he could see me if I wasn't already a being of love. And I couldn't have allowed my heart to be felt, if i wasn't already a being of love. 

When we are love, we recognize love and see no barriers to it. We can fall in love in one day. We can let our deepest, most vulnerable selves be seen and touched by another. And we can give up our search for love because we are love. And the love we are will undoubtedly attract that same love in another.

I promise you that sight will be secondary, because all you will care about is how your soul feels when you are with them. All you will know is how your heart leaps and skips a beat in their presence. And the messy road that got you here will fade into the dust of your half-lived life. Your heart will glide off into the sunset, no longer worried about the destination, but entranced only by the journey.