Here is the alternative to a guarded heart – Vulnerability.
Exposure is the price of freedom.
A guarded heart is a heart imprisoned.
An exposed heart is free.
Think of the Grinch: A guarded heart is clenched and shrinking. Fear begets fear. An exposed heart is open, relaxed and growing. Love begets love.
An exposed heart is vulnerable to hurt. This is the price of freedom: to not defend yourself, but to accept life as it happens; to let go of resisting what is, and to stay grounded in accepting the present moment, knowing that “this, too, shall pass”.
Vulnerability requires the courage and strength of the Warrior.
The reward is freedom.
Crones' Chronicles 