Heal your heart

Ever notice how when you're going through something that has to do with your heart, whether being madly in love, grieving a loss, celebrating something joyful or healing from a breakup, every song you hear seems to speak to you? That happens to me anyway. I love music. Love it. Love it. Love it. And while I may find myself completely moved and entranced by the instruments in a beautiful song, it's the lyrics that often get me. It's the lyrics that resonate with my soul, touch my heart and give a voice to the many emotions swirling wildly within me.

My heart has been pretty tender lately. I'm still dealing with what it is to really love someone yet know you can't be with them. And with several people I love going through real and substantial pain with breakups, deception and death in their midst, I'm extra tender out of sympathy. Each time I turn on the radio, download music for a new playlist or decide to listen at random to my ever-growing iTunes catalog, I seem to come across a song that reaches down to the very depths of my pain. The memories flood into my mind's eye and longing grips my heart. My friends' hurt mirrored in my own being rises to the surface even more acutely. It really does leave me breathless at moments. But just as much as music can touch my pain and my fear, it also touches my strength, my courage, my hope, my conviction and my joy. It validates my efforts and motivates me to continue forward along my path. Truly, there is a soundtrack to my life, as I'm sure there is yours, that we can craft with care by choosing our songs (thoughts, beliefs, attitudes, companions) wisely.

Last night I was staring into the star-filled night sky as I flew home. I was thinking of A. and feeling sentimental, despite myself. And in the mix of a new playlist just as heavy on artists and songs that cut right to the quick as those that apply healing balm to the wounds, After the Storm by Mumford and Sons filled my ears with this message:

And there will come a time, you'll see, with no more tears.
And love will not break your heart, but dismiss your fears.
Get over your hill and see what you find there,
With grace in your heart and flowers in your hair.

Truer words could not have been spoken, or in this case, sung, with the reminder that the pain of a broken heart, like everything, is temporary. Heartache fades eventually. When love is lost, it can be hard to remember that. We fall so easily into the trap of identifying heavily with our hurt and our fear, momentarily forgetting that love is so much more than that. Love is truth. Love is light. Love is the reason for being, if you ask me. And yes, love can hurt. Yes, love can bring anguish and suffering like none other, it can cause us to lose our senses and inflict and experience pain we never knew we were capable of. But that falls away. The tears stop falling too. And when you once again open your heart to grace, to love, all goodness will be yours.

So as a reminder to myself and to anyone reading this who's heart is hurting for any reason, there will come a time when it doesn't any more. There will come a time when you will heal your heart. Choose your soundtrack lovingly and honestly, and grace will prevail.