By Katherine Scherer and Eileen Bodoh, authors of “Blessings Abound: Awaken to the Gifts at Hand”
SINCERELY – FROM THE HEART WILL YOU BE MY VALENTINE?
I remember the first time I became aware of the heart. It was in grade school in a class of about 28 kids. Shortly before the final bell rang at the end of the school day 28 kids handed out little cards to each other with a big red heart on each one. Some said “Be mine.” Others said “I’m Yours.” But most of them said, “Will you be my valentine?” I had a bunch to hand out too. It was always fun to see the smile on others’ faces when they received their cards from each other.
I didn’t really think much about the heart after those years. At least not until the teenage years when couples paired up together and gave their heart to each other.
Puppy love prevailed. It was the early 1950’s and every girl wanted to be with a boy and every boy wanted to be with a girl. Someone they could give their heart to.
Some couples stayed together for a few weeks and others stayed together for a few years. But most of them took their hearts back before the end of their final high school year. The wonderful fantasy of.their teenage love had come to an end. They took their heart back and saved it for the true love they believed would come into their lives
when they would give their heart away forever.That wasthe dream: find true love, get married, have children, and live happilyever after.Thosewere the days.
It all seemed so simple back then, but simple was only the dream. When tested with the reality of life, many hearts were broken, sadness stepped in and relationships ended. Hearts gave out after years of stress and struggle with a love gone bad. A broken heart takes a toll.
There are good things that can be said about the heart. One of the many things author Gregg Braden states in his book: “resilience from the Heart” is this: The adult heart beats an average 101,000 times a day, circulating some 1,900 gallons of blood through 60,000 miles of arteries, blood vessels, and capillaries.” And this goes on day after day without anyone even thinking about it.
Amazing!
The heart keeps on working even if heartache occurs.
And specialized doctors are equipped to do unbelievable things to help the heart if it even hints at finally giving out. Unbelievable things like the 30,000-plus transplants of organs and tissue made in a single year at the time of Braden’s writing.
Still, heart diseaseis the number one killer ofwomen.Couldabrokenheartbea contributingfactor? Is there any way we can protect our heart from the pain and suffering that becomes more than we want to handle, when loss occurs?The answer is yes.We can love our heartsandourselvesforall thatwasandall that is to
come. We can acknowledge the sadness and feel the pain without letting it take us over. We can live another day with hope and peace to give and share with others. We can be kind, caring, and show love, if only with a smile, as a way of connecting with others.
We cannot scientifically calculate the impact of emotional stress a broken heart has on the physical body. We cannot know if “she” died from a broken heart. What we do know is this:
Kindness, caring, love and connection, first to ourselves and then to others matters.
Kindness, caring, love and connection is what we do when we share our heart with another. Those times in grade school when we traded our valentines we were really trading our hearts. Sharing the love in our heart with another even in a small way is a powerful thing to do. A simple thing to do. Hearts then beat for another day. We are never alone and the world needs us. So may
I ask: Will you be my valentine? But even more important; who will you ask to be your valentine?
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Katherine Scherer and Eileen Bodoh are authors of the award-winning book “Blessings Abound: Awaken to the Gifts at Hand, recipient of the Literary Titan’s Gold Book Award. (Available on Amazon) They are also authors of “Gratitude Works: Open Your Heart to Love,” and contributing authors together with 100 other authors, including Dr. Joseph Mercola and Dr. Julian Whitaker, of “101 Great Ways to Improve Your Health” published by SelfGrowth.com.
