The Most Beautiful Hearts of the 2005 Namibia G.O. Team
Hey everyoneI've been thinking about Germaine's last post from Africa. The last paragraph really stuck, about leaving a piece of your heart...
Some of you may have seen this, others maybe not, but I thought it was appropriate for all you who feel you left a piece of your heart in Africa.
The Most Beautiful Heart
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.
posted by Don @ 6:10 PM
5 Comments:
Thanks! Don,
A new flood of tears...good thing Dee is at the coast!! HaHa! That is so beautiful....a piece of our hearts went over to Africa, and we got many pieces in return! We were all blessed by this adventure....can't even begin to count the ways!!
Beautiful story... I have heard it and it is quite fitting.
Wow, this is beautiful. A wonderful lesson to be learned from it!! Thanks Don!!
Sandi
How do I leave a big post on this thing? We gotta stoke the flame of this blogsite!
I just got done showing the videos and some picturs to a work friend. It's hard to relate the whole experience to someone who wasn't there but the videos helped. The one of the girls dancing makes me guy cry every time (guy cry = a stinging sensation in the eye caused by potential moisturization and in some cases minimal liquid discharge).
Hope all is well with everyone. I've enjoyed getting to see kids and parents alike in the past week and hope that trend continues.
See ya'll at Sam's!
Jason and Colleen,
Check your email for the instructions on how to be able to post.
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