A Love Letter To The Ones Who Keep Their Hearts Tender

Here’s to the ones who’ve taken the hits and fought the battles but haven’t let it change them. Here’s to the ones that repair their broken hearts while humming a mantra that says “it won’t always be this way” and believe it. The ones that stitch themselves together with whatever joy comes into their day. The ones that take that joy and apply it like a balm to the tenderest portions. The ones who force a smile and think about the parts of their heart untouched by disappointment, misjudgment, betrayal. The ones who will it to beat again, strongly and evenly, and head back out into the world.

It’s easy, so easy to callous yourself over, to erect a shield around your heart so that it remains untouched by all but the most wicked wounds.

But the ones who keep their heart tender know that while they might be safe from the hurt they’ll also be isolated from love, that a calloused heart makes them into an island, lonely and safe.

It’s tempting, so tempting to let those around you tell you to cut yourself off, to just not feel anymore. So many times these are our friends telling us these things, people we love, in a genuine attempt to alleviate our suffering. Here’s to the ones who find the strength to say no being hard-hearted and to still love their friends for trying to help the only way they know how.

Here’s to the ones who know they aren’t perfect but that they are being perfected as only a soft heart can.

Here’s to the ones that know the secret, that a hard heart might protect us but it can never love. Here’s to the ones with hearts so tender that they transform hurts into love and shine so brightly that even the ones who have hurt them are left just a little bit softer.

Here’s to the ones who keep hope alive for the rest of us. You’re an inspiration.