THE MOST BEAUTIFUL HEART

One day a young man was standing in the middle of the town

proclaiming that he had the most beautiful heart in the

whole vally.

A large crowed gathered and they all admired his heart,

for it was perfect. There was not a mark or flaw in it.

Yes, they all agreed it truly was the most beautiful heart

they had ever seen.

The young man was very proud of and boasted more

loudly about his beautiful heart. Suddenly, and old man

appeared at the front of the crowd and said,

"Why your heart is not a nearly as beautiful as mine.

The crowd looked at the old man's heart, it was beating strongly, but full of scars, it had places where pieces

have been removed and other peices put in, but they

didn't quite fit. In some places there were deep

gouges where hole peices were missing.

The people stared - how can he say his heart

is more beautiful, they thought?

The young man looked at the old man's heart

and saw its state and laughed. "You must be

joking," he said. "Compare your heart with mine,

mine is perfect and yours is a mess of scars and tears.

"Yes," said the old man, "Yours is perfect looking,

but I would never trade, you see every scar

represents a person to whom I have given my love -

I tear out a pieace of my heart and give it to them,

and often they give me a peice of their heart

which fits into the empty place in my heart,

but because the peices aren't exact, I have

some rough edges, which I cherish, because they

remind me of the love we shared. Sometimes

I have given peices of my heart away, and the

other person hasn't returned a peice of their heart

to me. These are the empty gouges - giving love

is taking a chance. Although these gouges are painful,

they stay open, reminding me of the love I have

for these people too, and I hope someday they may

return and fill the space I have waiting. So now

do you see what true beauty is?" The young man

stood silently with tears running down his cheeks.

He walked up to the old man, reached into his

perfect young and beautiful heart, and ripped a

peice out. He offered it to the old man with

trembling hands The old man took his offering,

placed it in his and then took a peice of his old

scared heart and placed it in the young man's

heart. If fit, but not perfectly, as there were some

jagged edges. The young man looked at his heart,

not perfect any more, but more beautiful then

ever, since the love from the old man's heart

flowed into his. They embraced and walked away

side by side.