(for a friend..i hope she reads this...)

Let's see ... What is heartbreak? What does it mean to have your heart broken? Is it something from which a relationship cannot ever recover? Is the definition of heartbreak an irreparable schism that forces two lovers apart, never to be together again?

I don't believe so. A relationship is made up of days and weeks and months and years of interacting with each other. Interacting when wonderful things happen, interacting when horrible things happen. A day is made up of thousands of words, glances, touches and movements. Not every single one of those is going to be happy or loving or sweet.

People hurt each other. People act selfishly. People act unexpectedly. People do things without thinking, without filtering their thoughts. It's inevitable that these things will cause two normally ecstatic lovers to glare at each other, scream at each other, maybe even slam doors and throw things at each other from time to time. Hearts break all the time to varying degrees.

What matters is whether or not those lovers are invested in mending their broken hearts together instead of separately.

If to you heartbroken literally means 'having broken up', then I'd have to say that I have been (and still am) in a relationship where I have not had my heart broken. But that feels silly to say. Plenty of people remain in relationships that should not exist, and I'd be willing to bet that their hearts are plenty broken so the yardstick of 'together or not' doesn't work for me.

Maybe I'm too literal. Maybe I'm not literal enough.