To Catch A Heart

“He broke my heart”, said Jane, as a tear slowly escaped down her cheek.

"What happened, Jane?" her mother replied, gazing lovingly at young Jane's face.

“I loved him, I really loved him, mother. And I was willing to love him forever, but he didn’t want that.” Her face was filled with the deepest sadness, her heart ready to sob, but she moved slowly, cautiously. Her mother listened calmly while she held Jane’s soft, young hands in her own.

“My dear child,” she spoke at length, “with how many words can I console you? You are only eighteen, and there will be yet many opportunities to love again. In time you will also come to see that the pain of a broken heart is beautiful.”

“What on earth do you mean, mother?” Jane’s eyes were imploring and pained and even more ready to burst forth with tears.

“I know that this is difficult for you to hear now, but someone once said that a beautiful heart is meant to be broken, like a precious vase that contains rare ointments and perfumes, so that the ointments and perfumes hidden in that heart can be poured out to enrich the world, and then to be healed again after being broken.”

Jane still felt deeply pained, yet this curious remark brought a strange sense of relief to her heavy heart.

“How can you be so sure, mother? I always believed that pain was a bad thing and that people try to run away from pain. Anyway, pain doesn’t feel very good, in my opinion. You know, I gave Thomas all my love. I was ready to be loyal to him. I placed all my hope and all my dreams in him. And now he has found someone else to love. All I feel is sorrow and pain, mother, and I don’t know how to carry this burden any longer.”

Mrs Thompson had already identified with her daughter’s pain from the beginning and, as she now gazed lovingly on Jane’s tortured face, she searched for a way to lighten her burden.

“Come to me, my child, let your heart rest in mine. Rest your head in my arms and let your pain be drowned in my love, for I will never abandon you.”

Immediately Jane buried her face in her mother’s bosom. She presently allowed the full force of her grief to flow forth and, as broken hearts tend to do, she cried out loud like a baby.

To be continued…

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Leba