Reflections: The Broken And Mended Hearts Store…
“Most things break, including hearts. The lessons of life amount not to wisdom, but to scar tissue and callus.” Wallace Stegner
Reflections: The Broken And Mended Hearts Store...
Reflections: The Broken And Mended Hearts Store...
Resume by Dorothy Parker
Razors pain you;
Rivers are damp;
Acids stain you;
And drugs cause cramp;
Guns aren’t lawful;
Nooses give;
Gas smells awful;
You might as well live.
Have you ever had a broken heart? How did you mend it? If you were going to open up a shop, what would you sell? Food? Clothing? Books? Salves to mend what ails us? This Plinky prompt on what we would sell in a store got me thinking about how terrific it would be to own a magical place where broken hearts and wounded hearts were mended. It would be a place sprinkled with angel dust and filled with healing salves from heaven. As I searched around for relevant poems and information to share, I came across the wonderful and real organization – Mended Hearts. They visit patients recovering from heart surgery and bring them big red heart pillows. They follow up post surgery with support and love. Read here About Mended Hearts.
“It is a curious sensation: the sort of pain that goes mercifully beyond our powers of feeling. When your heart is broken, your boats are burned: nothing matters any more. It is the end of happiness and the beginning of peace.” George Bernard Shaw
Reflections: The Broken And Mended Hearts Store...
The Broken Heart by William Barnes
News o’ grief had overteaken
Dark-eyed Fanny, now vorseaken;
There she zot, wi’ breast a-heaven,
While vrom zide to zide, wi’ grieven,
Vell her head, wi’ tears a-creepen
Down her cheaks, in bitter weepen.
There wer still the ribbon-bow
She tied avore her hour ov woe,
An’ there wer still the hans that tied it
Hangen white,
Or wringen tight,
In ceare that drowned all ceare bezide it.When a man, wi’ heartless slighten,
Mid become a maiden’s blighten,
He mid cearelessly vorseake her,
But must answer to her Meaker;
He mid slight, wi’ selfish blindness,
All her deeds o’ loven-kindness,
God wull waigh ’em wi’ the slighten
That mid be her love’s requiten;
He do look on each deceiver,
He do know
What weight o’ woe
Do break the heart ov ev’ry griever.
Then, I came across a blog offering tips and a survey to help heal a broken heart. Start Here: 15 Healing Steps. When life throws us a nasty curve ball, it would be helpful to resume living, as Dorothy suggests in the first poem above, but also to have a magical place with healing resources to visit. Of course, this is pure fantasy but indulge me for a moment… Instead of more shops filled with trinkets, toys and the usual tchotchke, why not have a healing store that soothes and mends our broken hearts, replacing our pain with comfort and joy? Barnes poem above shares the agony of a broken heart… Read it phonetically. More below. 😉
“A pain stabbed my heart as it did every time I saw a girl I loved who was going the opposite direction in this too-big world.” Jack Kerouac
Reflections: The Broken And Mended Hearts Store...
Reflections: The Broken And Mended Hearts Store...
Mending Wall by Robert Frost
Something there is that doesn’t love a wall,
That sends the frozen-ground-swell under it,
And spills the upper boulders in the sun,
And makes gaps even two can pass abreast.
The work of hunters is another thing:
I have come after them and made repair
Where they have left not one stone on a stone,
But they would have the rabbit out of hiding,
To please the yelping dogs. The gaps I mean,
No one has seen them made or heard them made,
But at spring mending-time we find them there.I let my neighbor know beyond the hill;
And on a day we meet to walk the line
And set the wall between us once again.
We keep the wall between us as we go.
To each the boulders that have fallen to each.
And some are loaves and some so nearly balls
We have to use a spell to make them balance:
‘Stay where you are until our backs are turned!’
We wear our fingers rough with handling them.Oh, just another kind of out-door game,
One on a side. It comes to little more:
There where it is we do not need the wall:
He is all pine and I am apple orchard.
My apple trees will never get across
And eat the cones under his pines, I tell him.
He only says, ‘Good fences make good neighbors‘.Spring is the mischief in me, and I wonder
If I could put a notion in his head:
‘Why do they make good neighbors? Isn’t it
Where there are cows?
But here there are no cows.
Before I built a wall I’d ask to know
What I was walling in or walling out,
And to whom I was like to give offence.
Something there is that doesn’t love a wall,
That wants it down.’ I could say ‘Elves’ to him,
But it’s not elves exactly, and I’d rather
He said it for himself. I see him there
Bringing a stone grasped firmly by the top
In each hand, like an old-stone savage armed.
He moves in darkness as it seems to me~
Not of woods only and the shade of trees.
He will not go behind his father’s saying,
And he likes having thought of it so well
He says again, “Good fences make good neighbors.”
Robert Frost is one of my favorite poets and Mending Wall offers lots of insight on building bridges to peace and friendship. Will these save us from the heartache that seems to be our human lot? Perhaps not, but at least, we can spend some time reading Frost as we thaw from the frigid rain of unrequited love or from Cupid’s arrow gone amiss. Cheer up… This too shall pass. The Broken and Mended Hearts store is around the corner waiting for you to begin to feel restored.
What are your thoughts? Have ever had a broken heart? How did you mend it? Do you have any stories to share? What memories of either come to mind? Do share! Thank you. 😉
This post was inspired by a prompt from WP Plinky: If you were going to open up a shop, what would you sell? Food? Clothing? Books?
*Please bear with me as I continue to catch up on your blogs and commenting… Thank you all for your patience! 🙂
Positive Motivation Tip: A broken heart can be mended with care, love, patience and a salve from heaven…
PHOTO CREDITS/ATTRIBUTIONS: All photos Love heart, Broken heart, Broken heart2, via Wikipedia and/or Swan Heart by Mozzercork, and heart by zen via Flickr
Poems from various sources: Resume by Dorothy Parker via The PoetryFoundation, The Broken Heart by William Barnes via famouspoetsandpoems and Mending Wall by Robert Frost via writing.upenn.edu
Until Next Time…
Ask. Believe. Receive. ©
Elizabeth Obih-Frank
Mirth and Motivation
Positive Kismet
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Life is full of temptations. be strong!!!!
Aye my friend… so true! 🙂
A lovely post Elizabeth!
TY Lorraine! 🙂
Like everything else we learn at least as much from a broken heart as a happy heart – I wish that wasn’t true but it seems to be the case.
It is the case… quite and many a broken heart has healed to play the field again. TY! 🙂
🙂
TY! 😉
Elizabeth~I, like everyone, have had a broken heart a few times. To heal? I relied on prayer, friends, and getting involved in something bigger than myself. After awhile the pain is reduced or gone….and life has moved on to better vistas.
True… the initial phase is devastating and not much makes that pain dissipate; that is why I thought it would be a great store to own… TY! 🙂
Checked out the Mended Hearts page. Wish the program, Mended Little Hearts, had been around fifty years ago. My little brother would have benefited greatly from it. Even though he’s gone now, I’m glad that other children with heart problems (and their families) are getting much needed support and assistance.
I never figured out the best way to mend my own broken heart. So, I can’t impart any useful advice on that subject. Love the Robert Frost poem though… it’s one of my favorites!
Yes, they are a wonderful organization. I got two pillows when I was in the hospital and they do all they promise to do… TY! 🙂
I’ve had a broken heart more times than I care to remember. Maybe it’s the artist in me. I don’t know that I ever healed in a healthy way, but it usually went something like : (1) wailing, moaning, general drudgery and failure to leave apartment, (2) leaving apartment with vacant stare, visiting coffee shop in attempt to evade home, (3) crazy late nights at clubs to numb said vacantness and excessive hanging out with friends in attempt to forget I’m trying to forget anything, and finally (4) having so much fun hanging out with friends and meeting new people that I eventually forget about the Lothario that caused the heartbreak in the first place.
That was exhausting just writing about it. Good thing I met my hubby. I’m not a good broken-heart mender. 🙂
Sounds very familiar… and then we hold our hearts and press on… TY! 🙂
My heart has been broken so many times… yet I’m taking another chance everytime! I still have hope. 🙂
Love is full of mystery and so we keep going back like moths to a lamp… TY! 🙂
Scar tissue and calluses, indeed – time can be a healer but not always
True and I love that quote for same reason… TY! 😉
you need a very strong heart if one in your family our your own body got sick …
Ture too… and life gives us lots of ways to show that strong heart. 😉
“…When your boats are burned: nothing matters any more. It is the end of action but the beginning of peace.” George Bernard Shaw
Cleansing by fire… 😉
hi Eliz,
you inspired me again for a new post – I’ve set a link to you there of course
TY! I will add the link to the post as a related article. 😉
I love this store. Thank you!! 🙂
Same here… TY! 🙂
That Frost poem always has something new for me to learn every time I read it. Love this mending wall and bridges to friendships concept. Love the many illustrations in this post of mending broken hearts!
TY for your comment on this one. I’m a huge Frost fan and added it as it has one of my favorite lines “Good fences make good neighbors.” 🙂
I’ve been down the road of a broken heart before, and I sometimes think the pain is not worth the gamble. Thank God, I have kids and grandchildren, so having another ‘half’ is not a must. Once you’ve been burned a time or two, one becomes wary, I think. 🙂
I hear you and the post was a stroll down that raod for me too. TY! 🙂
As sung by Al Green:
“How can you mend a broken heart?
How can you stop the rain from falling down?
Tell me, how can you stop the sun from shining?
What makes the world go ’round?….”
When I read you entry above, this song was playing in my head!
TY and now it’s playing in mine! 😆
I agree – in my head too.
Time doesn’t heal but it makes living bearable again. I do like that Robert Frost poem it was new to me. Thanks for sharing. And now I have the song above running through my head. Thanks likeitiz. 🙂
TY for your comment Judith… Frost’s poetry is awesome and full of great nuggets of wisdom. 🙂
The red heart photos remind me of a red heart pillow I got after my last surgery.
What would life be without a broken heart or two? It tells us that we’re alive, that we can care about another human being deeply, wholly and hopefully, unconditionally. We’re resilient and we bounce back, as we should. But boy, it can be painful and can take every ounce of energy and love of self to make sure we come back fully to the person we were before.
A heart attack is also a broken heart….
As usual, a beautiful selection of poems and quotes.
I’d like some of that healing salve from your magical store, forever grieving the loss of my friend dog. Wonderful post. Thank you!!
I love that first photo of the swans!