AN OPEN HEART

Have you ever been curious to know how an open-heart surgery is performed?

I am… As I have expressed on other occasions, I am very curious. I have read that an open-heart surgery can last between three and six hours, that it is a complicated procedure to perform but that it can save many lives and with modern medicine the risk of dying in an open-heart surgery is minimal. While reading about the operation, I put my right hand on my chest impressed, since to perform an operation directly on the center of the universe of the human body, THE HEART IS COMPLETELY EXPOSED TO THE VISION OF THE DOCTOR.

Can you imagine it? I believe that surgeons are used to seeing all the internal organs of the human body. So, I ask, “How many of us know our hearts?” and I am not referring to their physical appearance, size, or color. But to the emotions, feelings, desires, and longings that inhabit within it. Within the Bible, it says, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” – Jeremiah 17:09. I have tried to know my heart every day of my life, and I still don’t understand it. Because it gets angry when I should be happy. It makes me cry when I want to say what I feel. It longs for the people I love when they are far away, but it is indifferent to them when they are around. And even though it is the first one to know when I fall in love, it easily gets upset in an unjustified way, as it is filled with jealousy, suffers from contempt, and is saddened in the loneliness of memories.

Then a new question arises, “Do we know how it works?” In addition to knowing that it beats on average more than 2,500 million times throughout our lives and that it is in charge of flowing the blood that carries nutrients to all our cells, we should consider that when the heart becomes ill, it expresses its pain through the whole body: Contracting our muscles, suffocating our throat, restricting our breathing, and subjecting us to a stormy whirlwind of chemical changes by paralyzing the bloodstream; stopping the oxygen from flowing to all our systems. To prevent the heart from getting sick, we must learn to choose wisely, act wisely, and eliminate negative attitudes no matter how old we are. Within the Bible it, says, “Therefore remove sorrow from thy heart, and put away evil from thy flesh: for childhood and youth are vanity.” – Ecclesiastes 11:10.

At this point I can say that the heart is very complicated and that is why I ask myself, “What does it like?” I can’t particularly say what my heart likes, but I think it feels happy when I enjoy everything I do. When I am charitable to people in need. When I offer words of comfort to those who suffer. When I help heal the wounds of those who fight their own wars in a hostile and inhuman world. When I plant a tree. When I breathe in the scent of a flower. When I share my time with the beings I love. Or simply when I am courteous, kind, greet and respect all people or share a smile with grace and a happy countenance wherever I go. Within the Bible, it says, “A merry heart doeth good like a medicine:  but a broken spirit drieth the bones.” – Proverbs 17:22.

After a brief review, I want to ask, “How many of us care for and protect our HEART?” On many occasions, my heart has been racing at a speed well over a thousand an hour, but I believe that good eating habits, personal hygiene and constant exercise can help keep it healthy. The heart, in a certain aspect, is not a COMPLEX organ, but it is very WISE and constitutes a safe box inside our body where we can CHOOSE to put our most wicked thoughts, store our worst intentions, house our darkest secrets. Or we can place our good deeds, our purest and cleanest feelings, our happiest emotions, happy moments, charity, perseverance, hope, faith, and love in it. In the Bible says, “As in water face answereth to face, so the heart of man to man.” – Proverbs 27:19.

Our hearts do not beat just to beat, our hearts beat to give us life. And each person is free to choose what they want to keep in their heart, but it is good to discard, envy, laziness, disdain, ignorance, and all bad thoughts that keep us from living a healthy life free of problems.

When learning to correct our inappropriate attitudes, we should learn to be more honest with ourselves and with others. We should be sincere in accepting our mistakes and correcting our defects; prudent in accepting our weaknesses to develop strength in adversity, humble in achieving success, and wise to accept and respect all people equally.

By last, to get to know our heart fully, we must learn to know God, through loving all the members of our family as if we were children, reflecting the purity of that love in our eyes and with the integrity of our souls without expecting nothing in return; expressing that love every day of our life, without limitations, without complexes, without doubts and with all the intensity of our own being. Strive to be happy, valuing and accepting each person as they are; without trying to change the feelings, thoughts, or actions of any of them. So that each person is a faithful reflection of himself by feeling loved, with the freedom to love, because true love can only be expressed with an OPEN HEART.