Song of the Heart

You have to find your heart song all by yourself

You might make a different song, yes that's right it's true
That don't make anybody more or less as good as  you

And wave a flag because everybody plays a part
One world united singing this song of the heart

* Song of the Heart ~Happy Feet.  

One of the joys of my internship is that while I sit doing my research I get to listen to music.  Today, as you might have guessed by the two opening quotes, I listened to to Happy Feet.   In case you haven't seen it, this is a movie about a young peguin named Mumble, who discovers that he expresses his heart song is not a vocal one but rather through dance.  Because this is different from how the other peguins thing he should express his heart song, he is shunned from his community.   The community ends up embracing Mumble because it is only through his unique gift that the community recieves the assistance from humans that they need. 

So, I know what you are thinking-"Alma, what does a movie about dancing peguins have to do with your internship and interfaith work?"   Yes, I know it seems a bit out there but hear me out.    

In Happy Feet, Mumble is shunned because he has a different way of expressing his heart song. Your heart song is "the voice you hear inside, who you truly are."   I think in many ways our faith is equivalent to the idea of a heart song.   When we listen to the voice that we hear inside, calling us to be who we truly are, we are called into a community of shared values of love, compassion and hospitality.  

Yet, as we discover in Happy Feet, sometimes people have different ways of expressing their heart song.  Often, we are quick to dismiss them as strange, weird and, in many cases, just plain WRONG.   But it is only because Mumble is unique in his expression that the community is saved.  

The opening quote is from a song called Heart Song (you can listen here-the video is Oliver and Company, not Happy Feet.)  reminds us that our differences do not makes us any better or any lesser.  Rather when we allow each person to share their song how they are truly meant to share it, it results in "one world united singing this song of the heart." 

So today, I encourage you to play your part and sing your heart song.  But, more importantly, I encourage you to listen to others heart songs to hear the ways that they work together as a part of the larger heart song of the world.