RE: Joyas Voladoras (#31)

"So much held in a heart in a lifetime. So much held in a heart in a day, an hour, a moment. We are utterly open with no one, in the end--not mother and father, not wife or husband, not lover, child, not friend. We open windows to each but we live alone in the house of the heart. Perhaps we must. Perhaps we could not bear to be so naked, for fear of a constantly harrowed heart." While some thought the essay was somewhat negative, I thought it was purely true. Despite your attempts to shield out all sadness and heartache, you will eventually experience something that breaks down that fortress, and subsequently, you'll experience beauty. I don't think these are such cautionary words about the delicateness of hearts, but the inevitability of experiencing something achingly beautiful.


This essay made me think about some of my favorite human experiences, as such:

Whenever you're running that last bend in a race, you think about how easy it would be to just stop and walk. And everything is telling you you're right-it would be easier to just walk. But then your heart is beating so hard you're worried it might burst out of your chest, and your team is cheering you on and you're taking your final stride, and it doesn't burst. And once you're holding yourself up against the fence to find your time, you smile to yourself. You realize you've always felt this way. Even when you're not running.

Or the way you feel when it's midnight on a Tuesday; the world is silent, all except for that song that never fails to make your heart break a little. Memories are flooding you at a paralyzing rate and you're powerless. It's a school night, and you know you're not getting out of bed at six.

That time you heard from a friend you hadn't talked to in years, someone you thought you'd never see again. He marveled at how wondrous it was that you'd been apart for so long and still managed to remember your inside jokes.

Or those days when everything is golden. The world seems to be on your side, the sky feels so big you think it might swallow you whole, and you can't help but grin. You don't even think about the impending pile of homework waiting to stress you out. All you can bear to do is sigh and sing a little. Your heart is swelling and you're happy to the core, but not in that this is the best day of my life-way. Just in this is right where I need to be. 

"Every creature on earth has approximately two billion heartbeats to spend in a lifetime." And I like how I've spent mine so far.