How To Find Where Your Heart Is
I disagree with the common saying that “Home is where the heart is.” The soul of your heart is not a solid immobile entity; it’s scattered in minuscule pieces throughout places, time, people. I guess you can compare it to a trail of every bit of thing that makes you you.
Your heart willingly sheds itself upon places that take your breath away. You’ve left a part of yourself that time you traveled around Europe; some on Parisian streets, a whole lot during that time you laid down beneath the Eiffel Tower, and surely a generous amount when you were overlooking the view from Amalfi Coast. You knew right away that once you come back, you’ll have a lingering feeling that would pull you back soon enough. Heck, it doesn’t even have to be dreamy places like France or Italy — it can be the most seemingly insignificant places; your favorite Thai restaurant down the street, your neighborhood pond, or even your local Trader Joe’s.
Your heart also sheds upon what you consume. Like that first sip of coffee in the morning you rely upon every dreadful (or delightful) morning. Or your favorite chocolate mousse you just know you shouldn’t be eating but you do eat anyway. Maybe even an eh meal you once had, but merely because that was the meal you had on that special occasion with your loved ones. Yet still, you cherish that mediocre and ordinary food because it’s meaningful to you and the memory behind the meal is what makes it extraordinary.
That’s just it — the memories. When you look back upon your childhood, visuals of the most random moments appear in your head. It may be a flashback of being thrown into the air by your father as you carelessly scream with joy, absolutely elated. Looking back, you remember laughs, tickles, road trips, cuddles. Your childhood is a time when you were full of wonder; it was a time of discovery that had shaped the unquestionably unique individual you are today. (And, for the record, the unquestionably unique individual you are today is remarkably phenomenal.) But the past is a place where your heart peacefully nests, and your goal is to find new places for your lovely and dear heart to gleam upon.
Sure enough, you are where you travel, what you eat, whom you meet, what you listen to, what you read — everything. You are your life. I guess that’s what people mean when they say they want to “discover themselves” by trying new things and going on adventures. All of the things you’ve experienced must have occurred to create who you are at this very second, reading this.
Follow your heart, and it will follow you wherever you go, sprinkling itself as a mark of your journey. And maybe those bits and pieces of your heart will be left to rest — but maybe someone out there will be brave enough to reach down and dare to pick them up, slowly collapsing walls between your heart and theirs to cross paths and collide into each other.