Your Heart in the Rearview Mirror

I bumped into an old friend who is recovering from a bad breakup that has gone on (and off and on and off…) for a long time. When I carefully asked how he’s doing these days, he said this. “I’m much better. Because I finally realized an important thing: Sometimes when you’re hurting bad and deep and it doesn’t get any better, you just have to leave your heart behind for a while. Promise you’ll come back for it again when it stops trying to take up all the air in the room, making the rest of your life impossible to breathe.” A strange, sort of Country and Western song lyric thing to say, but I knew instantly what he meant.