Gifts given freely

At a time when I really needed to know that in fact, love did exist in this world, I was hanging out with my spirit brother, Johnathan, at a small water hole, beneath a culvert along a country road. During the beastly Summer months in a small upstate city in New York, we would religiously escape the hot pavement for this small place where runoff from streams afforded us a place to literally chill out. The added bonus of this oasis was that the place was ripe with the most amazing rocks; with fossils galore beneath our feet, we always spent time rock hunting. Well this one particular day we were sitting on some larger rocks, splashing our feet in the cold water and I happen to look down to my right and find this awesome rock that I knew had been a perfect heart.... if not for the bottom point which had been broken off. I mused aloud to Johnathan about how cool it would be to have seen it before the piece came off. We were both amazed at the shape of it so I resolved to take it home with me... a treasure of great wealth for it was a gift, given freely, by my sister Earth. Ten minutes could not have passed when my left hand, as if moved my some other will than my own, moved to pick up another rock. You got... it was the bottom of the heart. Both Johnathan and I, well schooled in the ways of magic, were still completely awed by such an event. The heart stone came home with me and has since been the central point of an altar.
Through the years, it has mirrored other heartbreaks I have endured... it now is now 4 pieces rather than 2 and my human heart is only a little worse for the wear. I am loathe to encase it for safety, but I worry how many more breaks it can withstand before it crumbles... returning to the dust it once was. And so it is that I walk this physical world... heart unshielded for it must be free, yet like my heartstone.... it is vunerable and, although the wounds are not mortal, they are deep and painful. Allowing the force of Love to heal me, I retreat to Nature.