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 valley. A large crowd gathered and 
they all admired his heart for it was 
perfect. There was not a mark or a flaw 
in it. Yes, they all agreed it truly was 
the most beautiful heart they had ever 
seen. The young man was very proud and 
boasted more loudly about his beautiful heart. 


Suddenly, an old man appeared at 
the front of the crowd and said, "Why 
your heart is not nearly as beautiful 
as mine." The crowd and the young man 
looked at the old man's heart. It was 
beating strongly, but full of scars, 
it had places where pieces had been 
removed and other pieces put in, but 
they didn't fit quite right and there 
were several jagged edges. In fact, 
in some places there were deep gouges 
where whole pieces 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 with you. You see, every 
scar represents a person to whom I have 
given my love - I tear out a piece of 
my heart and give it to them, and often 
they give me a piece of their heart 
which fits into the empty place in my 
heart, but because the pieces aren't 
exact, I have some rough edges, which 
I cherish, because they remind me of 
the love we shared. 


Sometimes I have given pieces of 
my heart away, and the other person 
hasn't returned a piece of his 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 piece out. He offered it to the 
old man with trembling hands. The 
old man took his offering, placed 
it in his heart and then took a 
piece from his old scarred heart 
and placed it in the wound in the
young man's heart. It fit, but not 
perfectly, as there were some jagged 
edges. The young man looked at his 
heart, not perfect anymore but 
more beautiful than ever, since 
love from the old man's heart flowed 
into his.