Exercise for the heart
I was speaking to a friend the other day about love and she was saying sometimes it just doesn’t seem worth the effort because it ends in heartbreak. I was thinking about our conversation as I went through the long last week of Arlene’s life and wondering why do people do this? Get a dog, put it to sleep. Heartbreak.
A friend wrote today about his own thoughts of having a dog: “I just don’t think I can go through it again (getting another one and going through the heartbreak, I mean, even with all the joy). All that innocence, that unconditional love, those ecstatic responses, night after night, to the same damn food. . . It’s just too much.”
I was assembling some notes about turning 50 and some physical goals to ward off the effects of aging, but there is no warding off heartbreak – it comes from places and at times you don’t expect. The only real way to not have your heart broken is to not use it and just think of how that would look?
The heart after all is a muscle – it gets stronger with exercise. The metaphorical heart does too. You love not necessarily deeper each time, but you love wiser and you understand that love is a gift and is not to be taken for granted. It becomes more precious as you age, more ephemeral, more pure.
I looked at the faces of Loca and Wolfie this morning – eagerness. They were awaiting my love, their breakfast (same damn food), and the start of a brand new day.
If we could all begin that way each day – damn, life would be good.