The Perfect Heart
By weemam
@weemam (13372)
July 17, 2007 3:25pm CST
You all know I love a nice story . I was sent this to me by a good friend today and thought it too nice not to pas on , xx
One 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.
Author Unknown
3 people like this
15 responses
@wolfie34 (26770)
• United Kingdom
17 Jul 07
That was a wonderful story my friend, if you look at my heart it's covered with barbed wire and six foot tall walls lol! No one is having a piece of my heart, I'm keeping it well safe it was my heart that got me in this mess in the first place, or was that my brain LOL. Sorry I digress thanks for sharing, hugs xxx
@lingli_78 (12822)
• Australia
18 Jul 07
this is such a wonderful story... thanks for sharing it with us... it is true that sometimes we forget to give a part of our heart to somebody else because we are just too selfish... thanks for reminding me again about this... i will try to give a piece of my heart to the people who need it from now on...
1 person likes this
@Lakota12 (42600)
• United States
18 Jul 07
What a wonderful story . Very heart wrenching . I gues as the older we get we do have peices of our hearts pulled out and some not replaced. I feel sometimes like I have a big hole there somewhere in my heart that need to be replaced by someone out there to fill up.
HUgs
1 person likes this
@whyaskq (7523)
• Singapore
18 Jul 07
This is indeed a very touching story. It was one of my favorite when I was looking for inspirational speeches to do some opening address at meetings. Personally, my heart is also full of holes left over from unfitted pieces of hearts :)
@gloria777 (1674)
• India
18 Jul 07
I too have read this story last year and this has really inspired me.
1 person likes this
@jal1948 (1359)
• India
24 Jul 07
why wait to grow old to have a heart like that many of us have that heart at a very young age as we are soo very trusting time and again it gets broken sometimes ripped off by others insensivities,even then one must continue to trust rather than be a cynic.
@mdarma (868)
• Singapore
18 Jul 07
A wonderful story, Yes, truly a very great story. The meaning are deep and I really like the meaning of the story. The old man, infact is telling us a very important thing of love and we should all have the old man's heart.
@raydene (9871)
• United States
19 Jul 07
Well Sis I think my heart looks a mess! I am sure it isn't too pretty but it is well used as I'm sure yours is. You have a piece of mine and I know I have a piece of yours. I may never get to Scotland but a few bits of my heart are there..
oxxoxoxoxo
@luckygirl602 (3)
• China
18 Jul 07
Well,i'm from china and i have heard of a same story before.It was said that the kind man in the world made his heart to pieces and send them out to the man who needs or whom he cares.But when he was dying,all the pieces will come back and return a perfect heart. It is really touching.And i think we should all try to be such kind of man.