I Carry Your Heart

Who do you carry in your heart?  It’s a thought that has been running through my mind with the release of my newest book.

Hearts are funny things and the people who worm their way into our hearts aren’t always who you may think.  Family and friends and pets top the list, but odds are pretty good that your heart has been touched by others – complete strangers who did or said something that touched your heart so deeply that you carry a little of them with you even today.

An elderly couple struggling to walk while holding tightly to each other’s hands always gets to me. A child whose laugh was so infectious it left a smile on my face all day. A man who stopped to offer a stray dog a cuddle and a bite to eat. It’s these times when my hearts grow a little bigger and I carry warm feelings with me.

Many of us now carry the people of two very diverse foreign countries in our hearts.  We cheer for the underdog and rally behind those who protest what their government is doing to a neighbor.  We applaud those who find creative and modern ways to stymie the aggressor and are touched by all the human kindness that is being shown to all the regular people who have been dragged into this on both sides.  The heart of the entire world beats as one for those who are suffering.

I Carry Your Heart, my newest book, came to me as I read the 1952, E.E. Cummings poem “I Carry Your Heart With Me” . Some describe the poem as showing the unity of love and how love can connect the entire world. If that’s the case, then everyone around the globe should read the poem because let’s face it, if we carried the hearts of others with us the world would be a kinder and less violent place.

Central to my book is the love between a couple, a mother and daughter and their extended family. In this day and age, when so many families have been torn apart by war and the pandemic, it’s easy to forget how important the strength of shared family love is. Adversity tests that strength in so many ways and sometimes we all need a reminder, that while the people we love aren’t perfect, the sacrifices we make to protect our families are the truest testament of that love.

So, I ask you again my friends….who do you carry in your heart?

Be well my friends…

~BAL