The Perfect Heart .... ( Good Story )

[postman]

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.
They embraced and walked away side by side