My friend Lani sent me a beautiful card this week, a writing prompt from Love Feast as part of their 365 Gathered Thoughts.
I took the challenge thinking it would be easy.
It is anything but.
"Nobody has ever measured, not even poets, how much the heart can hold."
To understand her words, I first wanted to understand a bit more about her.
To some it may seem that Zelda Fitzgerald lived a Jazz Age dream. The wife of writer F. Scott Fitzgerald, she was a writer, a celebrity, and, as her husband coined, "America's first flapper."
She was also the victim to a domineering husband. She was diagnosed with schizophrenia and died as a patient in a mental hospital fire.
There's no telling what her heart held.
After reading her bio, I'm not sure where this leave me.
Hopeful or heartbreaking.
But as a kind of poet herself, I have to believe Zelda meant this for a happy ending.
This quote reminds me of Mary Poppins' bottomless carpet bag. One definition is a bag that appears small yet holds an endless amount of items.
This has to be our hearts. Able to be filled and filled again with cherished memories and stories. Able to hold so much good and grace and love that no amount of sorrow could ever shut it up.
I owe it to my endless heart to fill it to the brim, and then fill it again.
To push in as many celebrations and loved ones and pretty things as possible.
To seek beauty and to find a place in my heart to take it with me.
What are your thoughts? I'd love to hear what this quote brings to mind for you!
I love, love, love that you stepped into the actual author's shoes and investigated her background!
ReplyDeleteLove it! Fellow linker from Lani!
Amazing words! Thank you so much for participating!
ReplyDeleteI love this:
ReplyDelete"I owe it to my endless heart to fill it to the brim, and then fill it again.
To push in as many celebrations and loved ones and pretty things as possible."
I think about how I felt when we were unexpectedly pregnant with our second child, feeling like it was too soon and we were unprepared. And then we discovered not one new child but two, and the blessing felt so heavy instead of joyful and light because... How? How could we be ready for two when we weren't even ready for one? But there was room. In our lives and in our hearts there was room. And they continue to fill us up and our hearts continue to expand and it is a miracle. Every day.
Thanks for this.
"I owe it to my endless heart to fill it to the brim." Yes, yes, yes! We want our cups to be running over...we want that for others. Too many times in life we settle, but we font think we've even begun to understand the depths at which our hearts can go.
ReplyDeleteThank you for linking up and joining us at the table!
-Chris Ann & Kristin
"I owe it to my endless heart to fill it to the brim." Yes, yes, yes! We want our cups to be running over...we want that for others. Too many times in life we settle, but we font think we've even begun to understand the depths at which our hearts can go.
ReplyDeleteThank you for linking up and joining us at the table!
-Chris Ann & Kristin