Broken Hearted

How is it that our hearts

seem whole before they know

anything but self and same?

Yet when they break

with fear and pain,

they open-up, revealing

what we've longed for

since the beginning:

courage to risk being known

for who we truly are –

nothing more and nothing less –

and letting others come and go at will,

with little more than hope

that who we are is enough

to warrant love's return,

not because it's earned,

but because it's freely offered.

These are the maddening,

yet passionate ways of the one

who turns us loose upon the world

with nothing but everything that's grace,

tucked deep within our hungry spirits.

So, when you put yourself out there

and fear begs you to retreat,

remember that love is not a rare elixir

to capture or hoard, but a universal way

of cracking ourselves open to the gift

that already lies within us.

© 2013 Todd Jenkins