Our hearts are like dough,
kneaded over and over again,
becoming elastic and malleable.
Kneading is essential, it seems.
When you are young and unattached,
all connections, like proteins,
are mangled and knotted,
in no particular order.
But as your heart starts filling with people,
a very unique matrix is formed within.
There’s folding and stretching.
Pulling and tugging,
As people come and go,
Kneading is needed to strengthen my heart,
I know. But just when I feel
that my doughy heart is strong,
springy, and ready,
a new phase of life begins.
The kneading becomes hard to endure.
The strands of my heart tear apart,
and I feel like the pressure will break it.
Only time, it seems heals.
How do you rectify an over kneaded dough?
Let the dough rest longer, experts say!
Let your heart rest, too, until it relearns,
Until it moulds to the newness,
until it is proofed enough.
Soon you realize that your doughy heart
can endure more and then some!
Ultimately the proof of a kneaded heart is in its ability to rise, refitting itself,
to hold an immeasurable amount of love and loss within its porous core.