The Phoenix Quill: Words Born of Fire, Inked in Truth

My heart has broken more times
than I will ever speak aloud—
split open by cruelty,
by betrayal,
by the kind of grief that rewrites a life.

But it never broke wrong.
Not once.

Every fracture bent me toward truth,
toward tenderness,
toward a deeper kind of knowing.
Every crack made space
for more light than I believed I could hold.

People think strength is hardness—
steel edges,
closed doors,
a face that refuses to feel.
But I have learned
that a heart can break
and still stay gentle,
still stay kind,
still stay aligned with what is right.

My heart refuses to splinter into bitterness.
It refuses to warp into what hurt it.
It refuses to shatter into someone I am not.

Instead,
it breaks
exactly where it should—
where compassion can widen,
where wisdom can enter,
where forgiveness can breathe,
where love can rise again
with a quieter,
deeper flame.

This is my strength:
a heart that breaks
but never breaks wrong—
a heart that keeps choosing the light
no matter how dark the world tries to become.

— Samantha Syrnich