Listen To Your Heart

The earth was so fortunate to share space with a beautiful soul named Matthew Stapanek. During his short-lived life, he gave the world so much wisdom. When I was given the title for this article by my guide, I immediately thought of two beautiful poems written by Mattie – as he was fondly known. Please see the end of this article for Mattie’s bio, you will be surprised to see how young he was when sharing his great wisdom.

Making Real Sense of the Senses

Our eyes are for looking at things,
But they are also for crying
When we are very happy or very sad.
Our ears are for listening,
But so are our hearts.
Our noses are for smelling food,
But also the wind and the grass and
If we try very hard, butterflies.
Our hands are for feeling,
But also for hugging and touching so gently.
Our mouths and tongues are for tasting,
But also for saying words, like
“I love you,’ and
‘Thank you, God, for all of these things”.
(circa 2001)

Crystal Celebration

Sometimes,
Sunrise is like a heavenly crystal ball.
Everyday,
In the little bit of time between night and day,
The Angels look at the earth
To see how things are going and
To see how things will be.
The sky changes from dark
Into Angel-whites and Angel-golds.
The blackness of trees starts to glow with
Pinks and purples and oranges from their hearts.
And during each dawn,
All the Angels gather up and have
A celebration in God’s honour!
And sometimes,
You can even watch
And join them in the celebrating.
Just look out into the sunrise,
Then jump into your own heart,
Float into the air like in a dream,
And pray with love and praise and thank-you’s
For your life, for your spirit, for your sunrise…
And for being a part of this heavenly crystal ball!
(December 1996)

What the guides want me to tell you today is to learn to listen to your heart. In everything that you do, check in with your heart first. Let that guiding light that shines within each and every one of us, be the light that guides you and inspires you to do only what is for the greater good of everyone.

There are so many times when we hear ourselves saying, in my heart I know this to be true. In my heart, I know this is what I should be doing. In my heart, I know that this is what I should say. In my heart, I know that I am wrong. Sadly we’re all encouraged to listen to our head, our logical thought processes that sometimes are in conflict with what our heart tells us. It’s time to start to bring the two together and to allow yourself to feel and think and then make up your mind.

Listening to your heart means that you allow yourself more time before you act, it gives you the opportunity to feel your way through eventualities rather than knee-jerk your way through them. It gives you the chance to put yourself in someone else’s shoes before passing judgement, before condemning someone, before being offended, before getting angry, before laying blame. Proverbs 4:23 tells us : “Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.” What sage advice.

About Mattie

Matthew Stepanek was born on July 17, 1990. Stepanek’s parents divorced when he was a child.^[2] He was raised in Upper Marlboro, Maryland and later lived in Rockville, Maryland.^[3] His hero was former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, who described Stepanek as “the most extraordinary person whom I have ever known”.^[3][4][5][6]

Stepanek suffered from a rare disorder, dysautonomic mitochondrial myopathy. His three older siblings died from the same illness. The condition was unknown until his mother was diagnosed with mitochondrial disease in 1992, after all four of the children had been born.^[2]

Stepanek was a poet and speaker, penning six volumes of bestselling Heartsongs poetry books, and a collection of peace essays that also became a bestseller. He was the lyricist for Music Through Heartsongs.^[7] The album was produced by Sony, was released in 2003 and performed by Billy Gilman, and which debuted at number 109 on the Billboard 200 and at number 15 on Hot Country Songs.