📍The Ruins, Talisay City, Negros Occidental

This reminds me of my favorite movie “That Thing Called Tadhana (I have been talking about that on my earlier blogs and Instagram posts), and its story about The Arrow with a Heart Pierced Through Him.

Allow me to restate the short story.

There was an Arrow who was getting tired of his pointy life. Until one day, he woke up feeling heavier than usual. He woke up with a Heart pierced through him.

“Whose heart are you and how did you get here?” the Arrow asked. But there was no reply. The Arrow was feeling heavy because he was not used to it. So he started searching for the owner of the Heart because it was weighing on him.

The Arrow asked everyone he met if they owned the Heart. Everyone denied the Heart was theirs. Some would say, “No, that’s not my heart.” or “No, but I feel I might soon.”

As the Arrow continued the search, he noticed the Heart was getting lighter. He didn’t know why, probably the Heart is losing weight, he is gaining strength, or the Heart may have been able to carry itself.

They pass another, who asked the Arrow: “Excuse, but have you been looking for the one who has lost that heart?” the Heart did not reply. The heart didn’t need to. The heart just slowly moved back from the arrow. Slowly. Very Slowly. Until the Heart is no longer pierced through the Arrow.

The Heart moved on.

The Arrow who used to have a Heart pierced through him tried to move on but he was too heavy, and he was dragging himself down. The Arrow could not understand why felt heavier when he actually no longer had the load of carrying somebody’s Heart.

The Arrow tried to go back to his old, pointy life and every day, he would wake up feeling heavier than usual. But there was no Heart pierced through him each time. So the Arrow decided to be patient and just try to be the old Arrow that he was before he became the Arrow with a Heart pierced through him. So he can live normally again. And He did.

One day, he just woke up feeling a little stranger than usual. The Arrow woke up being tired of his pointy life again. Until he heard a question too familiar that it was not strange at all.

“Excuse me, but have you lost your heart?”

The Arrow was surprised. It was the Heart who used to be pierced through him. And there was no reply. The Arrow and the Heart didn’t need any.

©Antoinette Jadaone

If you get to think of it at first, it wouldn’t really make sense. But as you read along and felt the emotions of the characters, you’ll then realize it made sense. Some of you might be in the position of the Heart. At a point also in your life that you found something special about the Arrow and hold on to the hopes that the Arrow would recognize you. Or were you the tired, old, and innocent Arrow who’s been living routinely. Who then was unsure whether to welcome the Heart pierced through you. Despite the uncertainty of “finding the Heart’s true owner”, you carried along with the Heart. When you have been thinking, has it been what? 1? 2? 3? months or years that you held your heart so dearly before allowing someone else in your life to capture it and let your guard down? That when you almost did time doesn’t coincide for the both of you? “And the heart just slowly moved back from the Arrow. Slowly. Very slowly.” Only then, to those who believed in Tadhana or Fate, for what may seem impossible after moving on and going on in your life after a heartbreak, that you’d be surprised like the Arrow to see the Heart.

Who can really tell who’s gonna be the “owner” of your heart, nor who can really tell that this time or later is the right and destined time for you? – the both of you? But one thing I learned the most from the story, no matter how different your timelines are in life from each other and to the rest of the society, there is always a Perfect Timing for everything bound to happen. And THAT is beyond comprehension and explanation. You just let it happen and you have no control over it.

We may all have different point of views in this story. And there is no right and wrong to the way you see it or how you felt about it. But may you carry its lesson with you.