Bleeding Hearts

I received a lovely email the other day from my mother-in-law. This is what she said:

Hi Alexis Marie,

 

I was out in my garden today, and the tulip I planted in Zachary’s honor after ‘Walk To Remember’ a couple years ago is in full bloom. But this year it is coming up with a shrub I had planted last year and it is in bloom at the same time. The name of the shrub – Bleeding Heart. Very special to me, and I know it would be to you as well.

 

Love,

Mom

The bleeding heart. What a perfect picture of the grieving parent. For a long time I felt the jagged edges of what I could only describe as a broken heart but recently I was reading a book that used other symbolism to represent parental bereavement. Such symbols included a tea pot and a cracked nut, both able to hold and both able to pour out, to bleed. When a couple become pregnant, they carry a child and hope, but these two seeds unfortunately do not always have the chance to blossom. Letting go, pouring out, bleeding… these are some of the many states of the heart that follow loss.

I appreciate the email from my mother-in-law because it halted me in my busy day and I was able to reflect on not only Zachary but the state of my own heart. Am I still bleeding? Are you?

How are you doing today?