Photo by In[a]heartbeat
You remember that feeling you got the first time your heart was broken by someone you loved? It's a sinking, emptiness, feeling inefficient, unable to heal the pain. That's the feeling I get when any one of my kids has his or her heart broken by someone they love. I love my kids and I don't want them to ever feel this pain but it is part of life and part of growing up. The only way to learn how to deal with a broken heart is to have your heart broken - I hate it but it is a fact of life and I understand it.
Both my teens have come to me in the last couple of days with what to them must feel like the biggest and most devastating heart break. Not from a girlfriend or boyfriend but from friends; friends they love and care for. Friends that sometimes want to rule in matters of the heart and friends who choose when to call my kids and when to call someone else instead; friends who want to choose when and with whom you have fun. Good kids, I presume, with a misguided view of what is like to be a real friend.
All I can do is listen, give a little advice and remind them that they are good kids, that they are loved, and that while a broken heart can bring on a lot of emotional pain, it will heal if they let it. This too shall pass and in the future they will be able to recognize when someone is real and not so real. I remind them that they should never let others taint their love for life because my kids... they love life, they love their life and for that I am thankful.
I will always be here for them and yes, my heart aches like it did with my first heart break, but I know how to deal with it, they need not know that I ache when they ache. They only need to know that I love them with all my heart. I will be here no matter what. They are my life!! It must be love!
What a sweet, sweet post, and your kids are lucky to have you.
ReplyDeleteI remember when my first friend opted out of my life. It hurt like a bugger, and I'm not sure I understood it at the time. Looking back, though, it's so clear. She couldn't stay --- we didn't vibrate at the same frequency anymore and my life was meant to be filled with other teachers.
Doesn't mean that had I known it then it would have hurt less; egos make stuff hurt, and we all have these crazy egos we're walking around with (the Eckhart Tolle definition of ego, that is).
Best to you and your family!