Six years ago today (as I write this), my life changed forever. My 32 year old son had a quadruple bypass. He was in cardiac ICU for something like 10 days. I don’t know exactly because I spent every day and night there so had no real concept of time. I went home to shower and nap every few days, but spent the bulk of my time at the hospital.

You don’t expect your children to have such a major surgery at such a young age. He nearly died–more than once–which really gives you an appreciation for life. It can be taken from you in an instant.

The heart is a fragile thing, yet also one of the strongest. It can be broken, healed, bypassed, and filled with love. All of that with one small organ. It is in charge of the fact that we are alive, pumping blood and oxygen throughout our body so other organs and cells and other scientific things (sorry–science was not my favorite subject in school) can function as they are intended to.

It is the center of your emotional being. You either love or hate with the same heart. Typically your heart acts long before your brain kicks in. But when your heart is full of love, it is one of the most amazing feelings in the world. However, when you allow hate to creep in, it eats some of that away.

Hate is a horrible emotion. There are things that I dislike (like liver!) and even things I intensely dislike (like bullying), but I try not to hate things or people. There isn’t enough room in my heart for hate. It would push some of the love out of the way and “ain’t nobody got time for that”! I would much rather fill my heart with love.

So take care of your heart, eat healthfully, love intensely, exercise, and don’t hate. Your heart (and your cardiologist) will thank you. You only get one heart and it is so much more fun and rewarding to keep it full of love. In fact, just when I think my heart is full, something or someone else comes along and I add just a little bit more and somehow it seems to fit just fine. Love of other people, love of new books or movies, love of pets, love of new parts of the world, love of new parts of your neighborhood, love of anything you think is worthy of your love. And that’s part of the fun of this thing called life–finding more and more things to love. Don’t waste a minute of your life on hate. That only really affects you. The person or thing you are prepared to hate probably doesn’t even realize it or doesn’t really care, so it is only impacting your life. Is that what you want impacting your life? Or would you rather have things that you love making an impact? My choice is the latter.