The Perfect HeartOne 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.
Sent to me by "Hanady Mirza" <hanadym@hotmail.com>