You know how when we were younger (and for those who went to youth camps) they used to tell us that the more people we were "with," in whatever definition you want to associate that word with, the more "pieces" of us were left behind? How it was like being a piece of paper glued to another piece of paper and that when dried and torn apart there were pieces from the once adjoined paper still attached to you? As if you left pieces of your self or heart behind and they did as well.
What if you still owned those pieces of yourself? You never left them behind. We always pick up the pieces of situations and people that don't work out. How we eventually use them is what really matters. Our past experiences continually shape us into who we are today. We may have been shattered (possibly multiple times) in the past, but how we pick up those pieces and reattach them to ourselves is what really matters. We can still have a whole heart; something we're willing to give to our future partner one day. It might not be the original, but it's matured and grown from our past. We won't have a swiss cheese of a heart in the end, just a pieces together, tacky glued, multifaceted heart. Something beautiful and hard to understand at times, but that's OK. It's OK to have been hurt, torn or happy. Our past manifests itself in our present. And blossoms into something incredible.
What I'm trying to say is: my heart --our hearts-- are never whole or fresh like they were in the beginning, and that's OK. Why would you want to be someone you were 5 years ago? You would want to grow right? So a whole heart is yes, a rare find nowadays, but the real diamonds in the rough are those who have gone through the "rough" and the crap of life, picked up those shattered pieces and glued them back together again. The past teaches us what to do for the future, and if we listen well, then we could make a better future for ourselves and the ones we love. Take a dented heart and polish it up a bit; let it shine. Love yourself and who you are and were.
