Good Grief Cook

Mystery of a Broken Heart

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A poem for this day.
Henry David Thoreau
Let us agree

for now

that we will not say

the breaking

makes us stronger

or that it is better

to have this pain

than to have done

without this love.
Let us promise

we will not

tell ourselves

time will heal

the wound,

when every day

our waking

opens it anew.
Perhaps for now

it can be enough

to simply marvel

at the mystery

of how a heart

so broken

can go on beating,

as if it were made

for precisely this—
as if it knows

the only cure for love

is more of it,
as if it sees

the heart’s sole remedy

for breaking

is to love still,
as if it trusts

that its own

persistent pulse

is the rhythm

of a blessing

we cannot

begin to fathom

but will save us

nonetheless.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Rich Beebe says

    Yes! – to this – Yes! What else needs to be said? Other than, thank you for sharing this piece of wisdom at the beginning of a challenging month. Love to you and yours. Rich

    • Lisa says

      HDT writes so perfectly in so few words what we know and feel. Love to you dear friend as you continue on your journey

  3. patcook1 says

    I have been reading a book given to me by the funeral director last year when Paul passed. It is a daily meditation for working through grief. ~ Healing After Loss by Martha Whitmore Hickman who lost a daughter. I found this quote quite poignant.
    “Look upon each day that comes as a challenge, as a test of courage. The pain will come in waves, some days worse than others, for no apparent reason. Accept the pain. Do not suppress it. Never attempt to hide grief from yourself. Little by little, just as the deaf, the blind, the handicapped develop with time an extra sense to balance disability, so the bereaved, the widowed, will find new strength, new vision, born of the very pain and loneliness which seem, at first, impossible to master” ~ Daphne Du Maurier

    • Lisa says

      Yes we do learn to adapt as a matter of survival and it does take courage. Thank you for sharing another beautifully written truth ❤️

  4. Janice E says

    Beautiful thoughts, Lisa – thanks for sharing. Excellent thoughts for everyone, regardless of the circumstances.

  6. Julie Rainbow says

    Amen. How beautifully put. This poem chokes me up. How truly beautiful.