Kick Drum Heart

There once was a girl who loved her parents, her sister, and her pets. She had a fat yellow dog and loved her the best.

The girl had quite a few friends, some who were very close to her. She had a bland life, but a tranquil one. She thought she was happy.

Then life changed. Like water, it flowed on and she got older. Tragedies did not slide by her unnoticed now, as they had when she’d been small. Death and life twined together until she finally saw that they were one and the same.

Her perspective changed. Not only did she judge less and think more, her priorities shifted, too. People came to mean more and things to mean less. The word “relationship” became pointless and the term “love” became broader, deeper, and much more powerful.

She came to know varieties of happiness, not the same flat line of simplicity. The levels of joy were staccatoed by sharp, jagged drops of sorrow and shock and grief. She knew what it was like to be blessed, because the deep slices of loss missed her, mostly. (But she had felt the swift bloodless wound of heartbreak when the fat yellow dog died practically in her arms.)

The girl came to know what it was like to cry out because of others’ agony and grief. She saw the tears of a mother without a son slide down a face wracked unfairly with newly-drawn lines of sorrow. She saw the belongings of entire families destroyed, and thrown out onto the curb like so much trash. She saw people who felt the same drive to do something pull together and do it.

She saw faith transform and fill and lead. She saw cynicism and skepticism grab and drown. She saw hope snag and catch and blaze.

She saw just a little taste of life, and that taste was enough to change her.

There are two (and often more) sides to every story. There are hundreds of thousands of millions of beliefs in the world. There are billions of perspectives and opinions and people. And all of these people bleed and hurt and love and feel. It’s enough to blow this girl’s mind. Or fill it with knowledge, acceptance, and a drive to change things for the better.