This was sent to me by my aunt -something to think about:
One day a young man was
standing
in the middle of the town proclaiming
that he had the most beautiful
heart in the whole valley. A large crowd
gathered and they all admired his
heart for it was perfect. There was not a
mark or a flaw in it. Yes, they
all agreed it truly was the most beautiful
heart they had ever seen. The
young
man was very proud and boasted more
loudly about his beautiful heart.
Suddenly, an old man appeared
at
the front of the crowd and said, "Why
your heart is not nearly as
beautiful
as mine."
The crowd and the young man
looked
at the old man's heart. It was
beating strongly, but full of
scars,
it had places where pieces had been
removed and other pieces put in,
but they didn't fit quite right and there
were several jagged edges.
In fact, in some places there
were
deep gouges where whole pieces were missing.
The people stared - how can he
say
his heart is more beautiful, they thought?
The young man looked at the
old
man's heart and saw its state and laughed.
"You must be joking," he said.
"Compare your heart with mine, mine is
perfect and yours is a mess of
scars and tears."
"Yes," said the old man,
"Yours
is perfect looking but I would never trade
with you. You see, every scar
represents
a person to whom I have given my
love - I tear out a piece of my
heart and give it to them, and often they
give me a piece of their heart
which fits into the empty place in my heart,
but because the pieces aren't
exact,
I have some rough edges, which I
cherish, because they remind me
of the love we shared. Sometimes I have
given pieces of my heart away,
and the other person hasn't returned a piece
of his heart to me. These are the
empty gouges - giving love is taking a
chance. Although these gouges are
painful, they stay open, reminding me
of the love I have for these
people
too, and I hope someday they may return
and fill the space I have
waiting.
So now do you see what true beauty is?"
The young man stood silently
with
tears running down his cheeks. He walked
up to the old man, reached into
his perfect young and beautiful heart, and
ripped a piece out. He offered
it to the old man with trembling hands. The
old man took his offering, placed
it in his heart and then took a piece
from his old scarred heart and
placed it in the wound in the young man's
heart. It fit, but not perfectly,
as there were some jagged edges.
The young man looked at his
heart,
not perfect anymore but more beautiful
than ever, since love from the
old man's heart flowed into his. They embraced
and walked away side by side.
How sad it must be to go
through
life with a whole heart.
a great site
to
promote your site-free!
