Real human hearts are soft and squishy, constantly moving, pushing fresh blood and oxygen through the body. Valentines are made of paper and flat, and rather cold. Paper hearts can be torn up and discarded easily in the trash. Human hearts can’t even be touched without actual surgery. Why is it then that the human heart can be broken in less time than it takes takes to tear a paper heart to shreds, when you can’t even touch it?
The answer: You can choose whether or not to “break” or tear up a paper heart. You have no control over the breakage of a human heart. It happens. It’s part of the cycle of life that we all must accept, just as we accept eventual death. When the human heart gets broken, the first question is always, “Why?”. Today in my morning meditation this question was answered by a beautiful Tibetan myth:
“All spiritual warriors must have a broken heart because it is only through the break that the wonder and mysteries of life can enter us.” (I also learned that a spiritual warrior is someone who is willing to face their soul on a daily basis.)
I loved this myth. I find comfort in it both for myself and for others I know who have had their hearts broken. I have a friend, who, awhile ago, drew a broken heart in the steam on my bathroom mirror. She wrote next to it, “I’ll always have a broken heart, but I’m happy”. As I looked at the break in the heart, and read the message daily, it saddened me, and I couldn’t quite reconcile the message. “Broken heart” and “happy” were two words that didn’t belong in the same sentence in my line of thinking.
The old myth has helped me understand that a broken heart is also an open heart – open to new love, forgiveness, tolerance, empathy, new life directions, and a myriad of other things necessary for us to grow and change and move forward. I now understand my friend’s message and let it bring hope instead of sadness. The real fear and sadness lies in a closed heart. A closed heart can grow thin and cold and brittle much like the paper valentine. The “break” in the broken heart is the inlet for the new life that keeps the blood and fresh oxygen pumping.
Whatever shape your own heart is in on this Valentine’s Day, whether broken or intact, always keep an inlet available so that you,too, may experience “the wonder and mysteries” of life.
And so, as another day goes by, “break” does not always mean “broken”, and …I have written.
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