Purkinje.

Dear Adolescent Heart,

I always assumed that you’d grow up as I did. That year by year we’d learn together by experience. And that by now, at the age we are, we’d be in perfect sync, beat for beat.

Nope. I have to say, though, that it’s probably my fault.

It was I that prevented you from learning by denying you experience. It was I that insisted emotional entanglement would only get in the way. It was I that turned a blind eye toward your yearnings until they could no longer be bottled up in your less-then-mature myocardial vessel. And when the contents erupted, splattering helter skelter across my life, the cleanup was just bad. Yup, it was a choice.

And now, here we stand, together, wholly different.

I suppose, then, the onus lies on me to bridge this gap. That much is clear. The path there, however, not so much.

Here’s to strength and exploration in the new year, friend.

-earl.