“Smoke rises. Tears fall. Hearts break.
Doors open. Time passes.
Love will never let you down.”
The words drifted into my mind as effortlessly as the smoke rising from the incense stick burning on my desk in the corner of my studio.
When I was a young girl in my teens, I loved a boy with all my heart.
He broke it.
And then, I met another boy and I broke his.
I kept falling in and out of breaking hearts and feeling like mine was broken until I learned to not fear my brokenness but to celebrate and cherish every crack and scar of time. To dance with the light that did get through and to illuminate the dark corners with Love.
As Leonard Cohen so famously sang, “There is a crack in everything. That’s how the light gets in.”
I used to think that to know love, to be in love, to have love, I had to have a perfect heart and be perfect in all my expressions of this thing called ‘being in love’.
I thought I had to ‘win’ another’s heart by only showing the parts of my heart I thought were worth showing. I thought that to win someone’s love, I had to hide my cracks and scars.
Time and the constant breaking open of my heart has taught me that fearless love means loving my cracks unfilled and leaving my scars unpolished.
It means stepping joyfully and courageously into the dark corners of my fear I will never be enough and trusting that Love will never let me down.
And it never has — Let me down.
It’s just given me more cracks for the light to get in and more scars to strengthen the weave and warp of my beautiful tapestry of life.
A broken heart is an open heart and an open heart is a loving heart.
May we all live with our hearts wide open, loving this beautiful, precious life in all its cracks and scars.
Dare Boldly 
Hello my dear Louise 🙂 I rarely read your blog, do not be offended my sweet friend.
This morning however I am delighted that we crossed paths. It’s a sweet read.
And more people should read it.
You know me and my big soft open heart 🙂
Love is just So darn important. I intend to continue living listening to and following my heart.
Thanks dear friend. We’ll have to meet in March or april as I’m temporarily about to settle in Victoria for 2 months to give it a real try. Currently in Vancouver. Going to Seattle 3 nights, then to Victoria.
Miss you and Charles. Be well and sending loving hugs.
I am well 🙂 (I’ll be home Mar 3-10)
Jerry
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Dear dear Jerry! So lovely to hear from you. So sorry we missed you – Charles is finally over his cold. So look forward to connecting when you get back. And thank you for reading and commenting today my friend. Enjoy Victoria!
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Oh how I needed this . . . . thank you for this life-giving drink.
Love will never let me down. Holding that close.
With grateful hugs,
Jennifer
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I am so grateful my words found you where they needed to be… I write what I need to hear and feel and see and know Jennifer. Hugs of gratitude for you too my friend.
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Love is such a powerful word with different connotations.. As we were maturing from “lovesick” teenagers to young adults to middle age etc I realized, with experience, that to say “I love you” was supposed to open the door to a, hopefully, permanent relationship. Then I discovered the concept of “like”. To like is to accept one for who they are, warts and all, so to speak. Another aspect of “love” is one’s feelings for a parent, sibling, grandchild and 99% of the time it is unconditional. You can figure out what the remaining 1% means.
Off to shovel the silly white stuff that insists on falling from the sky!
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I love that you call it the ‘silly white stuff’ 🙂
I love the Greek’s distinctions of love —
Storge – empathy bond.
Philios – friend bond.
Eros – romantic love.
Agape – unconditional “God” love.
Gives so much room for the one word to encompass so much without being socialized to the nth degree!
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My friend Tami wrote of this cracked heart when her daughter died. The cracks and the imperfections and the pain that shines in the light. How love still lives in the dust from it all. Your words brought me back to her story and that of others who’s hearts broke from true loss. But it gives joy and that’s why we love endlessly and imperfectly.
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So very true and beautifully said Bernie. Thank you. ❤
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