Today I saw two adorable siblings. The younger sister was sitting on the brother's lap and they were just playing around with this marker. It was clear that the brother dotes on his sister a lot, he was hugging her tightly and kissing her hair. The sister looked at ease and snuggled close to her brother too. And suddenly I was thinking if I used to be as close to my brother. Regrettably, I only have memories of quarelling with my brother and the occasional talks. I rather admired those two siblings, they were brave enough to show their love for each other. Why is it that as people grow older, we tend to be less withdrawn when it comes to showing our love openly?

And here I am, reminded of this story I read from pris's blog some time ago.

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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 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 with whole pieces missing.

The people stared. How could 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 they often 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 took a piece from his old scarred heart and place it in the wound in the young man's heart. It fits, 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.

Moral of the story: The more hurt and pain you have gone through in life, the stronger and more beautiful your heart will be.