Breaking My Heart Wide Open

This place and these people are breaking my heart wide open.

Each little smile that I encounter, each hand that I hold, and each adult that I manage to actually communicate with yanks the chasm that cracked open when I stepped out of the airport apart even wider.

I’m overwhelmed by the beauty of the volcanoes when we turn the corners of the crowded little streets. I’m overwhelmed by cold showers which wake me up faster than the crazy delicious cups of coffee. I’m overwhelmed by the temperate weather that has yet to fall short of what I consider an absolutely perfect spring day in Cincinnati.

But mostly, I’m overwhelmed by the humility. By the endless patience. By the gratitude and excitement that leaps from the hearts of these people, even when all that I’ve done is hand them shampoo or placed a sticker on their little shirts.

Equally amazing is the exuberance that has shined from each of those on the medical team as we’ve run through hallways, brushed teeth, pricked fingers, and struggled to understand sentences. They renew me endlessly and have brought so many tears to my eyes as they’ve shared stories and danced with babies. We all keep saying over and over again, “Is this real life?” I think that’s the best way to envelope the feelings we’re all experiencing so far because TRULY it doesn’t feel real. It feels too beautiful and too blessed to be real.

So yeah, my heart is broken in the very best way because now it’s so open and so full and so happy that I can’t wait to see what else this week has to pour into it.

Morgan Alexander

March 3, 2014