Unchaining the heart.

Your Midweek Blessing: On Heartache, the wisdom of Fairy Tales, and the Hope of Redemption​.

A band strung in-front of a deep cliff at Lake Superior. © A Furchert.

Dear fellow traveler,

Have you ever felt the chains around your heart tighten or lift? Or perhaps you're among the few who have never experienced a chained heart?​

I became aware of the chains around my heart during an unexpected moment—one filled with deep joy and gratitude.​

We had just bid farewell to some of our neighbors and friends who gathered to celebrate our daughter's 6th birthday yesterday. It was such a lovely gathering, and watching our daughter enjoying her company brought immense joy. I was overcome with gratitude for the day and also some exhaustion from hosting.​

Then, there was that pain again—a dull, sharp sensation in my heart area. I've felt this pain increasing since last November (our American readers might now be nodding knowingly).​

Do I have a heart problem? I sometimes wondered.​

So, I finally told my Chinese practitioner today.​

If you've been reading along for a while, you know that most Wednesdays, I let my Chinese doctor place acupuncture needles in my skin. Some sessions have opened up insights I've shared with you before like in this post on Seeking Sacred Balance.​

When I mentioned the pressure on my heart today, my Chinese doctor nodded knowingly. Then she placed needles around my heart area as I cried out in pain.​

"Blocked energy," she said knowingly before leaving the room. I was left with 40 minutes to face my blocked heart energy.​

First, I heard my heart pounding. Then, I felt the organ viscerally, as if I were being swallowed by each expansion of my heart muscle. Suddenly, I was plunged underwater, like returning to my mother's womb. Blue light and dimmed noise surrounded me.​

Dub-dum, my heart sounded. Dub-dum.

Isn't this the most fragile wonder—our human heart? Pumping blood and keeping us alive from the day it was formed in our mother's womb until the day of our last breath?​

A great sense of gratitude and peace washed over me, just as the chains life had strung around my heart began to loosen. Dub-dum.​

Photo by Chittima Stanmore on Unsplash

Do you know the German fairy tale Der Froschkönig?

In The Frog King, collected by the Brothers Grimm, there’s this small but powerful scene I’ve always remembered. It’s about the prince’s faithful servant, Heinrich—often called Eiserner Heinrich, or Iron Heinrich. When his beloved master was turned into a frog, Heinrich was so heartbroken that he had three iron bands fastened around his heart, just to keep it from breaking.

Later, when the prince is restored to his human form and rides off with his bride, Heinrich drives the carriage. But along the way, the prince keeps hearing loud cracking sounds. He turns around and calls out, “Heinrich, der Wagen bricht!”—“Heinrich, the carriage is breaking!”

But Heinrich answers, “No, my lord. It’s not the carriage—it’s the bands around my heart snapping open.”

Fairy tales like this carry powerful truths about our soul’s journey. Like this image of a heart bound by iron bands has come alive for me once again.​

Sometimes, we try to hold our hearts together when the grief feels too overwhelming. While this might protect our hearts, it can also hold them hostage. Heinrich’s iron bands were his way of bracing against sorrow—of keeping it all in.​

But when healing comes, when the impossible turns around, the heart begins to release. And those old bands? They break.​

Maybe you’ve felt that too—that tightness in your chest when emotions are too much to carry, or the strange relief when something begins to soften. Like Heinrich, many of us carry invisible grief. But sometimes, when we open up a little, we get to feel the snap of those old bindings loosening—and with it, a glimpse of healing.​

And friends, what is true for the individual soul is true for the collective soul as well.

There is hope. Always.

A Blessing for the Chained Heart

May the gentle force of healing
embrace your heart,
lightening the chains that bind it.

May each loosening band remind you
that every experience lived
is a gracious part of your life’s journey.

May each release bring you
peace—deep and whole—
so you can see what awaits you
at your heart’s depth.

May your heartache become the seed
of new beginnings,
where both grief and joy mingle,
unbound and free.​

With great love, Almut

PS: If you can, leave a heart, a word or a line which resonated with you, a comment or a question in the comments, so we know you have been here :-)

And if you are looking for tender companionship to share what is on your heart join us for this year’s Passion Week Consolations:

In order to journey with us through Passion Week and to receive your daily Consolations all you need to do is to become a paid subscribers to our Cloister Notes (beginning at $5 a month). You can upgrade your subscription here or click below.

I am looking forward to journey with you.

Thank you for reading, sharing and supporting Cloister Notes, an independent letter for dancing monks and weary pilgrims to deepen your path and find wisdom with-in. Your support makes this labor of love possible.

If you have been moved by what you are reading, do consider becoming a paid subscriber, joining our intimate communion of fellow pilgrims on the deeper way. As a paid subscriber you have access to our live retreats and seasonal Contemplations, like our upcoming Passion Week Consolation.

You can share this letter by simply forwarding this email, by sharing it on your social networks, or if you are a substacker, by restacking it. Thank you, thank you.

Upcoming Program

---

In person Spring Retreat With Hildegard of Bingen

May 9 @ 5:00 pm - May 11 @ 3:00 pm

$200

On this Mother’s Day weekend (not only for birth mothers), we will ponder with Hildegard on Divine mothering and the greening of the soul, exploring its resonance across life’s seasons and how it nourishes our soul. We will read, reflect, journal and rest while joining the daily rhythm of the monastery.

Facilitator: Dr. Almut Furchert

Location: Saint Benedicts’s Monastery, MN

Click for Reservation here.

About Cloister Notes

A letter for dancing monks and weary pilgrims in the intersection of psychology, philosophy and spirituality. Contemplations on being human to deepen your path, nourish your heart and build wisdom within.

About Almut

Almut is a German American scholar and practitioner, a psychologist turned philosopher turned writer, traveler, photographer, retreat leader and mother of a kindergartener. She has taught and published on authors like Kierkegaard, Buber, Frankl, Yalom, Edith Stein, and Hildegard of Bingen. Almut is also a Benedictine Oblate and lives with her family in a little college town in MN.

You can manage your subscription here.