By Cathy Hird

When we look at the world with our eyes and our mind, we see the connections between creatures, and trace the causes of events. Thinking about the world, seeing with our eyes and mind, helps us to analyze what we see, to understand.

We look at the monarch butterfly, and we know it came from a caterpillar that fed on milkweed. We may think about how many we have seen that season and wonder about damage to its habitat and climate change.

We look at news about refugees crowding into Europe and we think about the disaster of civil war in Syria. We may draw out the connections to recent history in the Middle East. We may think back to the refugee crisis in Viet Nam, and how the world intervened successfully.

Something changes when we see with the heart. In the same monarch butterfly, we see beauty, grace, life. The way it dances on the breeze lifts our heart. We know that its caterpillar fed on our milkweed in nearby fields. We think about that process of transformation from chrysalis to butterfly, and feel the promise of new life. We feel joy.

When we see the stories from Syria and the refugee camps, we feel sadness. We feel anger at those who keep the civil war going. We feel confusion about the various claims about root causes. What we see sparks compassion and a desire to make a difference.

Seeing with the heart changes our relationship to what our eyes and mind observe. We feel connected to what we see. We feel part of the same world. We are no longer observers, but people who share life with what we see.

When what we see is beautiful--whether that is a place in creation or a loving relationship--we feel uplifted. We feel love and appreciation. We feel something overflowing in us. We feel joy.

Joy lifts us up, raises our shoulders, lifts the corners of our mouth into a smile. Joy nurtures us: we feel it in our core as something that heals, something that strengthens, that something that soothes. Joy also draws action from us, something that expresses gratitude. Joy may inspire art, painting or poetry in order to share the joy we feel.

When what we see is difficult, troubling and sad, we feel compassion. We hurt for the other. We long to touch them in a way that soothes, a way that changes their situation for the better. Compassion also draw action from us.

Seeing with the heart pulls us out of ourselves. First it draws the connection between us and what we see, then it flows out from flow us.

But the culture we live in can put this flow to a jarring stop. In our consumer culture, what is beautiful we want to possess. We want to pick up what gives us joy and take it with us. Possession stops the flow.

While we feel compassion, the need to act, the problems look so big. We look at our wallet and our bank account, and we feel that we don't have enough to help, to make a difference. We turn away. The culture of scarcity dams up compassion. When we stop the flow, joy and compassion die.

To keep joy alive, we have to do something. Think about having coffee with someone who laughs with us, who understands us, who encourages us. We appreciate them. We are nurtured by their support, their touch, their voice. We buy their coffee or we give them a hug, and we have returned a bit of the joy. With someone who is right in front of us, it is easy for gratitude to generate a response.

It is harder when we think about the big picture, but it is still true. If we think abut the monarch butterfly and the polar bear, we appreciate their beauty and strength. We can let joy influence the way we live in creation. Gratitude for theise creatures can inspire us to act on climate change. We think about the mess in Syria, and compassion inspires us to support refugee programs and to push for our government to support the peace process.

What we see with the heart generates the connection. Then if we open our hands, what is sparked will overflow into the way we live in the world.
Cathy Hird is a farmer, minister and writer living near Walters Falls.