Feeling Our Feelings

"Just as flowers need healthy root systems in order to blossom, feelings can only express their beauty when they are rooted cleanly within us, breaking ground in some manner, sprouting outside us."  Mark Nepo

Feelings are a distinctly human experience, although I saw a PBS special recently saying -- what all animal lovers have always known -- that animals also have feelings.  The thing about animals that is different from us is that they do not try to hide what they feel.  Neither do children.  My beautiful granddaughter wears her delight - or her displeasure - clearly on her face.  Where do we adults learn to hide from our feelings?  Perhaps it does not matter so much where we learned it, as it is important that we stop doing it.  To live with an open heart we need to feel what we feel.  Yesterday my time with my loved one was so sweet.  He was more lucid than usual, and he was his natural sweet-natured self.  Then, I later saw my granddaughter, who - by nature - wears such delight on her face.  I want to live more like she does --- in the moment, feeling my feelings.  How about you?