Heart-to-heart ties
Relations that have a piece of my heart
I once saw an elephant at the Zoologischer Garten (the Zoo) in Berlin. It disconcerted me, and I asked myself “What was an elephant doing in Europe?” The natural habitat of an elephant is either Africa or Asia, certainly not Europe. My childhood and teenage selves would have felt kinship with this Berliner Elephant. Because that is how I had often felt in groups of people : an anomaly, a misfit in a foreign land and yet I too had been trying my best, just like that elephant roaming around the Berlin Zoo, to appear to fit in while hankering to be free.
Born introverted, and therefore wearing the tiara of “misfit”? Perhaps. Perhaps not.
I no longer look at my personality, or anybody else’s, under the microscope of black-and-white. Psychologists say that humans are far too complex to be boxed into a linear narrative of either “this” or “that”. Ask my mom, and she will confirm that every morning I talk her ears off when I tell her the bizarre dreams I had the night before. Definitely not always “introverted”.
What made me feel like a misfit in groups of people is not as important as sharing what made me feel most like myself in certain groups of people. Those people who now have a piece of my heart. Those people who know me better than I know myself. Those people who have seen my most vulnerable, raw, heartbroken, miserable and despair-filled sides, yet love and accept me as I am. Those people with whom I feel inexplicable affinity, much like how the Berliner Elephant would feel, if it were not in Europe but back home, in Africa or Asia, where it belongs.
Certain people enter your life turning it around, refreshing it, making it new and full of love. You often wonder if you really are so blessed that these gem of people are now a part of your life. The people who you yearned for without even knowing you needed them. I do not label such relations “best friends” or “close friends”, to me they are heart-to-heart ties. These connections are intricately carved masterpieces which are exclusive, priceless and highly important for one’s survival on Planet Earth. It is not just a give-and-take. It is a gentle rhythmic dance of souls. A dance one never imagined they could learn, let alone enjoy, because they were convinced they had two left feet. Yet, these people unearth hidden talents in oneself, and before one can fully comprehend it, one is dancing like everyone is watching, for one is not dancing alone, everyone is dancing with each other.
Together we are carving out a wonderful life for ourselves. We need one another.
I need people, and people need me. As a kid and later as a teenager, I thought I would never meet people who would “get me”, without me having to endlessly explain myself to them. Today, with the gift of these heart-to-heart ties I feel like one of the luckiest, richest and most privileged persons on this earth.
If you have such “heart-to-heart ties” in your life, people who just get you, respect you and accept you despite knowing all of your sides (good, bad, ugly and everything in between), who are well aware of your mistakes, yet they choose to love you, hold onto them, cherish them, and thank them, for they are the true treasures brightening one’s dull life.
And, if somehow, you still feel like that Elephant at the Berlin Zoo, then hold on.
Your rare gem of people will find you, or you will find them, or both may happen! Your heart will be opened, healthy connections will be forged and life will shine like the Orion Constellation, the most recognizable and brightest constellations in the sky.
Wow,beautiful !!
Thank you 🙏🏽