The heart of a writer

"I cannot see how you can write and not have a broken heart from what you see around you." - Fr. Michael Kennedy, SJ

His words had resonance tonight because I knew he was right on point. We need to allow our hearts to be broken in order to have something of value to say to the world. We all have a story to tell - our own or that of those who have touched our lives. Even we as Christians tell a story of a man who we follow, of a God who loved us so much that He sent Him to die...a story full of struggle and suffering...but exploding with victory at the end of it all.

When you follow the events of a life and the impact it has on others, there is a certain connectivity you have because their story is somehow a part of yours. And others will then watch you, experiencing much of the same thing because your story is a part of theirs.

The need to be vulnerable with people at last has a purpose. It becomes okay to listen and to empathize...to be angry...to be joyful...to be sad...to be excited. We are given permission to share ourselves because it helps someone else tell their story, too.

But a story cannot be told without hope of a happy ending or a moral to be taught. The protagonist is on a journey of truth, seeking to find...something. Unless she opens herself up to the lessons she can learn along the way or the virtues she can acquire, the story has no point because in telling the story, the reader must travel with her and discover what truth the journey will uncover for himself.

That's how it is for us who live in this world. We watch each other, like we follow characters in a novel. We're looking for a good story - one that will catch our attention and give us that "Me, too!" experience. But we're not only looking for someone to identify with...we're looking for characters who will inspire us to greatness. Those who can rise above their conflicts and move us into a place where we never thought we could get to by ourselves.

We're looking for people who are real. People who have the same weaknesses as we do but have somehow overcome them. But the greatest obstacle we have in gaining something from them is our unwillingness to let our hearts go where they have gone...to that point of highest tension when a decision needs to be made about whether to give up or persevere...because we are afraid that we will fail.

Why?

Because that character...that person is not us. They cannot, in our present moments, do anything for us. We live in our own circumstances with our own choices to make...with our own story to write. And we know that other people are watching us as well.

Then what?

You choose your own adventure. You turn the page. You keep going until you've reached the end of your book. You put your pen down and reread what you've written, knowing in hindsight that you had been a character in many other stories in many other books that you may never know about.

All because you let your heart be broken, so much that you finally learned to love.