"My heart is precious, but not as material things are."

I heard once that care carves out a piece of your heart. That when you love someone, you surrender a part of yourself to their possession. You relinquish some control over the fate of your soul.If you love me, you won’t take a piece of my heart. My heart expands with the love it spreads and wraps those in my care in tendrils of warmth. With each smile, conversation, confided secret, it grows. I cast my heart out like fishing line and wait patiently to see who it draws in. The paradox of my life has been that the more I give of myself, the more I have to give.If you love me, you won’t hold my heart captive. You won’t selfishly stow the love I have to give within yourself and yourself only, locking my heart within yours. My heart is precious, but not as material things are. If you tuck it away for safekeeping, it dies.My heart is not a fragile thing. With me, it weathers. With time, it grows strong. But its strength comes not from callouses, from building up fortresses and drawing its shutters closed. It comes from breaking out of the prison cells of those who try to confine it. Wrapping me in chains has always been the easiest way to lose me. If I can breathe, I will sing, and my songs will keep me company on my way home to you." - Stephen Cosco