Bratty Girl: One heart isn’t enough...or is it?

One heart isn’t enough...or is it?

March 10, 2008

There’s a CD that’s been in my mix for several months now, and it has, among its many gems, a song that really gets under my skin. Now, under my skin is where my thoughts become deep, complicated, and more often than not lead only to other questions. None the less, on I blindly stumble.

Here’s my question, “Is one heart really not enough?”

And here’s my answer, “I think one heart can be enough.” And (in my best 9th grade English teacher voice) here is my textual support. I have loved. I have loved truly, deeply, wildly, passionately, without abandon and without constraint. I have delved deep into the confines of human emotion and participated in feelings that overwhelm and consume. I have been irrevocably changed and moulded by my feelings for another person. I have done all these things, and I did them on my own.

As the world continued spinning, without encouragement from the “other heart” or reciprocation from the object of my love and affection, I grew, developed, and loved. While tragedy befell, hearts broke, lies burned, trusts were betrayed, my “one heart” forged onward against the armies of pain and destruction.

Regardless of the “other heart” involved, MY love has always been enough to make me better, to make me stronger, to enable my heart to love harder and more fervently the next time. I have never regretted loving, even one-sidedly, because my heart reaps the benefits of love either way.

Love ends, fairy tales lie, and happily ever after only lasts till the carriage turns back into a pumpkin. Men (and women) leave, friends abandon, loved ones pass on. What matters, in the end, is how your heart looks. If it’s scarred from tearing pieces out and replacing them with the pieces that others gave you in return; if it has holes from where you tore out a piece and received nothing in return; if the edges are rough and jagged, that is the heart that will beat the strongest and will endure the longest. That’s the heart of love. And truly, one heart is enough, for a lifetime.