Sunday, March 24, 2013

Living With a Broken Heart


“When her heart was broken it changed her whole life.”

-      L. Clark

Living With a Broken Heart

I’ve known two people who have been living with a broken heart for a long, long time.  I’m sure I know some others as well, but I just don’t know it for sure.  One of the most interesting things about my experience with these two people in particular is that if another person were to look at them, they would not be able to detect their pain in any way.
A broken heart is not like a thrombosis. There is no formation or presence of blood clots that may partially or completely block an artery or vein.  But, they do have some things in common.  One thing’s for sure, a broken heart lies deep beneath the skin and many times you can’t see any signs of it on the outside.

That’s what I’ve noticed about the two broken hearts I know.  Both of them spend their lives living as if nothing bad ever happened to them at all.  They’re like streams of goodness, giving all they have to nourish everyone around them.  I was in a meeting once and heard one of them referred to as “an angel.”  It just goes to show that there are indeed angels living among us.
Perhaps, like my two friends, all angels were once good people living fine lives when something devastating happened to them.  And, it was that overwhelming event that allowed them to change from being simply human to angelic.  All I know is that my two angels have bridged the crevasse that once ripped through their heart by enlarging it in a magical way.

When I talked with one of them in great detail about her experience she said to me, “I was hurt so badly.    I was so embarrassed by what had happened that all I wanted to do was lie hiding in bed with my covers over my head.  But I had kids to take care of so I made myself get up every day and take care of them.”
Take care of them, she did!  Now she lives in a new life filled with expanding love as new grand and great grandchildren offer her unwavering love.  She never could have conceived of this palliative while in the depths of her misery.  All of this intensification of love has come as a result of her simple choice to get up every day and completely offer herself to the other, smaller, aching hearts encircling her.

When one faces trials in life there are always two chances for intensification.  One is to choose increasing the hate and despair that are so readily offered.  The other is to choose bridging the gap by showing increased love to everyone possible.  The first always leads to a growing chasm in the afflicted heart.  I once heard a man who made such a choice referred to as “the world’s only living heart donor!”  The second leads to a magical transformation into an angelic being. 
I hope you and I will always choose to completely offer our goodness to everyone around us no matter what happens to our hearts.  If we do, there will be many more angels out there and I know they’ll be on our side.  What could be more encouraging than that?

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