Positivity V

Often we find ourselves filled with doubt, skepticism and defensiveness. This is natural because in our process of growing up we meet people or circumstances which may have hurt us or we have witnessed our friends and loved ones going through intense pain from trusting such that the self defense is our wall of protection. It becomes harder to trust and the inhibitions grow. Actually this idea of pure negativity will not really protect us. You also do not become safe just because you do not love and will never be hurt. Because the world doesn't change just because you decide to be unhappy. Only you will change and your heart will ache.

Here is a story about hearts and beauty.

There was once a young man who went around town proclaiming that he has the most perfect and beautiful looking heart. So all the townsfolk gathered at the square to hear the outrageous clamoring of this young man's daring proclamation. And true enough after inspecting his heart, everyone was awed and agreed that he had the the prettiest looking heart without a scratch, a flaw or even unevenness.

Until an old man appeared and told the young man that he had a more beautiful heart than the young man. When he said that the townsfolk gathered around him and started inspecting his heart. But what they saw was a mash of material beating strongly yet scarred and filled with gaps and discoloration. The young man saw this and scoffed the old man for being a fool.

The old man man stood calmly as the townsfolk and the young man looked on incredulously. They wondered how the old man could compare himself, with his scaly scarred, hideous looking heart to the completely flawless one the young man possessed. This is when the old man said

"Every scar represents a person to whom I have given my love to". He tears out a piece of his heart each time and gives it to them and in return they give their hearts back to him. That explains the unevenness and different rough edges and discoloration of the old man's heart.

"Sometimes I have given pieces of my heart away and the person hasn't returned his heart to me" forming the gaps in between and holes. He explained that although these gouges were painful, they reminded him of the love he gave freely. All these made his heart perfect because he would not trade it for anything, not even a perfect looking one without a scar.

The young man listened to this and with his eyes brimming with tears ripped a piece of his beautiful looking heart out and offered it to the old man. In return the old man gave him a piece of his jagged, rough edged heart. The new piece did not fit and now there formed ridges and edges in the young man's new heart. But his eyes were opened and to him, he saw true beauty.

Taking a chance with trusting and loving other people when they don't understand or do things to hurt us back is a fear that sometimes hit straight home to most of us. However if we don't love, we don't give we are guaranteed one thing for sure. We will be going that path of melancholy and sadness. But if there is hope and love the positivity gives us an energy to keep us going. With hope there is a belief that things will get better and ultimately we will receive the good blessings meant for us in our lives. And even when the blessings don't show immediately we have the faith to persevere and keep going. Either ways being bitter is also a form of determination. Whether you desire to be stubbornly bitter, that is having the faith that life is meant to hurt you and people will always be unreliable, you are still having faith except in the wrong direction. When we shut a door to hope, we automatically sentence ourselves to death. Even with a heart like the young man without flaws, it is beautiful only to look. True beauty lies in the flaws understood by the beholder.