The Language of the Heart
“The heart has a language. You can only experience the depth of its wisdom if you learn emptiness.”
The soul’s liberation of realizing “I am” was amongst my first learnings from Zainab Salbi.
A world renowned humanitarian, Zainab founded Women for Women International when she was 23 and dedicated decades to offering both human connection and $146 million of aid to over 400,000 women survivors of war and conflict. Her inner journey is equally inspiring and I was most excited to hear her answer to that ultimate question: Who am I?
“I always measured myself as: Did I help enough women? Then, four years ago, I got very sick and almost died. In that intimate moment between myself and my heart, where I was catching my last breath, I was shocked, even embarrassed, that I did not ask myself: ‘Did I help enough women?’ The question was: ‘Did I live in love and kindness to myself and others?’ I had lived in love and kindness to others, but not to myself or the close others.
All of my armors and values of Who am I?—the humanitarian, writer, and activist—were taken away from me. For a year and a half, I couldn't speak, write, think, or talk. I was very scared: ‘If I am not this, then who am I?’ In my hours of meditation, I arrived at extreme joy and connection with my heart. I felt like my heart had a hand reaching out to mine, saying: ‘Don't leave me again.’ In my meditation, I heard: ‘How dare you ask: Who am I? I am.’ It was the moment when the meaning of who I am was no longer what I do. It’s ‘I am.’
This experience of ‘descending all of her knowledge to her heart’ revealed that our hearts have a language—One she can only learn through emptiness.
“The flute is totally empty
It is the breath that flows through
…sings and dances…
To be empty is not emptiness.”
— Rumi
“There's no value of emptiness. Yet, it is only when I go to emptiness that I can feel the divine,” Zainab says. “It may not be spiritual for everyone. Though, for me, that is the path of my joy and freedom because I go to the place where all the space is. It’s joy for no reason and all reasons. Love for all, no matter who. It is only when I arrive at emptiness that I can go to that vastness of emotions.”
Zainab graciously explores her path of self-discovery—From the freedom of sharing the truth that imprisoned her from childhood to her evolving spiritual path and learning that “life regenerates itself like Earth,” which she’s honoring with Daughters for Earth: A non-profit she co-founded to fund women and girls securing the health of our planet. While our conversation is woven with wide-ranging insights, she threads it with a single invitation: To honor the life we’ve been given.
With gratitude,
Jenna
Your message resonates with what I feel. Tks to let me know the work of Zainab. As Charles Eisenstein said about the presents conflicts: "To advocate peace in a time of war is always brave. Courage means, 'the capacity of the heart'. It comes when we open our hearts to actually feel. All eyes are on Israel and Palestine. This is now the fulcrum upon which the whole world could swing toward peace."
You also may be interested by the work of Nitsan Joy Gordon. She has written a book which we have published in English:
TOGETHER BEYOND WORDS - Women on a Quest for Peace in the Middle East
She co-founded Together Beyond Words, a peacebuilding organization that brings Muslim, Jewish, Bedouin, Druse and Christian women together in a dynamic process to heal ancient wounds, recover hidden strengths, and promote emotional understanding. Using Dance/Movement Therapy, Listening Partnerships, Healing Touch, Radical Aliveness (RA), Playback Theater and Internal Family Systems (IFS), this groundbreaking approach teaches women to harness conflict and intense emotions as a way to achieve empathy and deep connection with perceived enemies. The women then take these transformative practices into their communities, tribes, organizations, to spread the healing. Says Gordon: “Our power as women together is no longer dormant and as we liberate ourselves from various degrees of bondage and unite around the world in a call for change, we can also become allies to men in their own liberation of the heart.”
Blessings, Jean-Rémi Deléage
https://leseditionsdunona.com/en/together-beyond-words-eng/