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The Heart Wants What It Wants

Photo by Velizar Ivanov on Unsplash

“The heart wants what it wants or else it does not care” Emily Dickinson

Walking along a bike path today, a little in front of two young women, I heard one of them say, “I keep trying to get myself to like him as much as he says he likes me.”

It took every bit of my self-control and social conditioning to keep from turning around,dashing up to the young woman, and crying, “Noooo! You can’t force yourself to care about someone. ‘The heart wants what it wants’, and no one can force it to want what it doesn’t!”

I would imagine that nearly everyone reading this understands what I mean. (Although no doubt I would have freaked out the young woman and her friend if I had blurted this out to them!)

Haven’t we all, at some point in our lives, found ourselves the center of attention, admiration or even love by someone whom we don’t love back?

Or looked at the other way, haven’t we also at times really wanted someone to love us, when that person simply thought of us at best, as a pleasant and reliable friend?

There’s a truism that says there is nothing as certain as death and taxes. To that certainty I would add: if you have a heart, at some point it is sure to be broken. Not necessarily by cruelty ,but more often by…

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Deborah Barchi
Deborah Barchi

Written by Deborah Barchi

Deborah Barchi has recently retired from her career as a librarian and now has time to read, explore nature, and write poetry and essays.

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