02/14/2022
In a relationship where our primary name for each other was Sweetheart, Valentine’s Day was no big deal. Mostly it seemed redundant, though always (like any day) a good occasion for chocolate. Still, when February 14 approached for the first time after Gary’s death, I noticed. Amid the dread, I decided that maybe Valentine’s Day was a good time for a blessing. This is what came. As I share it again this year, I am thinking especially of those whose hearts have broken since the last time I offered this. If that’s you, this blessing is for you. And it is also for those who have been living with a broken heart for a long time. And it’s for those whose broken hearts keep beating in hope and in love amid the particular griefs of these days. For all who love and ache and love still, this is for you. Every single day.
BLESSING FOR THE BROKENHEARTED
"There is no remedy for love but to love more."
—Henry David Thoreau
Let us agree
for now
that we will not say
the breaking
makes us stronger
or that it is better
to have this pain
than to have done
without this love.
Let us promise
we will not
tell ourselves
time will heal
the wound,
when every day
our waking
opens it anew.
Perhaps for now
it can be enough
to simply marvel
at the mystery
of how a heart
so broken
can go on beating,
as if it were made
for precisely this—
as if it knows
the only cure for love
is more of it,
as if it sees
the heart’s sole remedy
for breaking
is to love still,
as if it trusts
that its own
persistent pulse
is the rhythm
of a blessing
we cannot
begin to fathom
but will save us
nonetheless.
—Jan Richardson
From The Cure for Sorrow: A Book of Blessings for Times of Grief