Dexter's nanny takes a leap of faith

Last night, two characters talked about taking the “leap of faith.” First, Dexter’s new nanny, who agreed to give Dexter’s household another chance after quitting, if only to take a leap of faith that it would work out better this time. Dexter, in turn, told the girl who witnessed his last kill—Lumen Pierce, played by Julia Stiles—that the he would let her go, in the hopes that she wouldn’t tell others what she’d seen. “It’s a leap of faith,” he said.

And that is what it takes when you’re looking for love, too. Sometimes in life, there’s just so much you can do to make things happen. In love, you can plan dates, initiate contact, beg for set-ups, hit events, introduce yourself and be proactive in meeting potential love interests. In life, you can make that call, submit that application, try alternative therapies, reach out to your network, beg for help and be proactive in getting what you need done. But then there’s a point in both love and life when when you need to take a deep breath, throw out your arms and give the dating or the project up to the universe. You need to let go and take the leap of faith that the universe will carry you a little further in the right direction. And this is what we should all do today.

Give yourself a break for a minute. If you want love or something in life badly enough, I’m sure you’ve been working your butt off in different ways to get it. So today, I want you to throw it out to the universe, which is larger than yourself and all of us. Take the leap of faith that if you are focusing on what you want with all of your heart and glowing with your authentic happiness, then what is meant to happen for you will happen. Your path will become clear. Ideas will spring to mind. People will pop up in your life. Opportunities will come.

I’m going to do it, too, in my own way. Let’s take the leap of faith together today. At least for just this one day, let’s give it up to the universe and have faith that it will take care of us. It’s not easy, but, hey, that’s why they call it a leap.

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Big love,

This last week’s episode—without giving much away to those of you who TiVo or save up to watch marathons—had one of the most touching, tear-inducing scenes I’ve seen in four seasons when Dexter’s sister Deb stood in a parking lot crying because she thought she was “broken” in relationships.

This is what Deb—played incredibly this week by Jennifer Carpenter—said to Dexter (played by Michael C. Hall) as she tried to breathe through her sobs:

“It doesn’t matter what I do or what I choose. I’m what’s wrong. Nothing I can do about it. If I’m not hurting myself, I’m hurting everyone around me. And there’s nothing I can do about it. I’m broken.”

Deb (played by Jennifer Carpenter): A great cop, a broken heart

There was no happy ending line that made everything right for her heart this episode, but I’m mentioning it because that’s sometimes how life is: Sometimes things hurt so bad you think you’ll never get over it. Sometimes bad things happen that you have no control over, or you can’t explain. And sometimes we all feel “broken,” like we can’t get anything right and we’re doomed to failure and feeling alone.

But please know that if you ever feel as low as Deb expressed in this episode: Tears and fear are part of the path of life—and proof that you’re healthy and emotionally advanced. You can’t feel great happiness unless you’re able to feel great pain. And the way I see it, if you’re feeling pain now, it means the happiness is on the other end of the seesaw just waiting to take its turn.

Whitney Houston says it best in her song “I Didn’t Know My Own Strength”:

“Survived the darkest hour, my faith kept me alive, I picked myself back up, hold my head up high,

I was not built to break. I didn’t know my own strength.“

Whether you’re facing a heartwrenching, life-altering time or just having a really, really, really bad day when it feels like your half-orange in love will never come your way, it’s part of life’s path for you. If you can feel this deeply in sadness, you can feel this deeply in love. And Whitney’s right: You were not built to break. 

Too bad we all don’t have a Dexter who can try to heal our pain…by killing the bad people who hurt us! (Watch out Trinity…)

Big love,