Heartbreak is a primary
contributor to our ability to love. When we willingly and freely open ourselves
to another and receive, in return, less than love or less than what we
understand as love or even purposeful pain, the breaking provides cracks through
which grace can flow in and out.
Love is a cumulative
undertaking, which sometimes must be experienced deeply, elsewhere, before we
allow it to return to places and faces where intentional hurt has been wielded
in its name. There is but one perfect love and it is certainly not ours, but
its dream is what beckons us to offer more of who we are to those willing to
try the same with us, even after we both have genuinely tried and fallen short.
Dogs are the best I've ever seen
at loving unconditionally, even after they've been abused. They're smart enough
to steer clear of previous perpetrators, and often even seem to be able to
sniff-out fear and anxiety in strangers. But when a tender heart approaches
gently, they're usually all-in.
When your heart is broken, and
you're neck-deep in your feels, let unconditional love put you back together by
the rhythm divine mercy offers; but don't be ashamed of your heart's cracks.
Those are the paths on which love will one day glide; the map grace will trace
to the you created before you were born.
© 2015 Todd Jenkins
Another one for the journal-- I've been clipping things over the past year...and I really appreciate your words. I don't know how you capture the essence of life and love, but I am glad that you do. It's the poets that help me to ponder and to reach, and to continue to become. Your words invited a visceral response-- a pause in the throat, a moment of deep truth. Thanks again for this morning (holy) devotion.
ReplyDeleteAt the quick, we are all connected. This is the deep place where our essence resides and from which it rises; the place wherein suffering and joy can be held in the same heart, at the same time.
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