The Story Behind the Heart
When I was little, perhaps 8 years old, I remember my father, Dr. Eulogio H. Rectra, explained how the heart forms in the human body. I remember this day clearly because I had run up to him scared out of my mind with a pain in my left chest. I had been laying down on my side watching T.V. when a sharp pain filled in the side of my chest. I jolted upright and for a few terrifying moments I couldn’t breathe. Seconds ticked by slow as molasses and it felt like my tiny body would never unfreeze from the shock. When the pain subsided enough for me to move, I went searching for my Dad.
When I found him, he was outside carving an avocado pit. I could make out two eyes and a nose in the carving and I briefly forgot why I had sought him out. “Well?” he asked, “Why were your screaming for me?” He listened patiently as I described what the pain in my chest was like and how I couldn’t move and had almost died of a heart attack (drama queen). He may have chuckled at the last bit. After I was done explaining my symptoms, he said bluntly. “You had precordial catch syndrome.”
My eyes grew wide. “Am I going to die?”
He laughed. “Eventually. But not now.” I wasn’t yet mollified. “You didn’t have a heart attack.” he continued calmly, “You were laying down for probably hours watching the boob tube, right?” I nodded. “Well, with all that inactivity, and all the weight on one side, you just pinched a nerve. It’s not serious. Just remember to get up and move every once and a while and you’ll be fine. Also stop watching so much T.V. It’s bad for you.” I felt better after hearing this, except for the part about not watching T.V. Amazing how a factual explanation can dispel one’s worries, like so much smoke in the wind.
He turned his attention back to the avocado pit, chipping away at the hard form to reveal an upper lip. “You know,” he said softly thinking about my heart attack worries, “The heart is a fascinating organ. In our embryotic state, the cells of the heart are one of the first to organize themselves into the organ they’re meant to be. These cells divide and form a tube-like structure which is the first iteration of the heart. Then, these tube-cells will divide again, eventually forming the four chambered organ that we are born with. But the point is,” He had finished the lips of the face on the avocado pit and was now shaping the chin and cheeks. “that the heart is the first thing that we create. Before stomach, liver, feet and hands. It’s the first organ to form, and the last to let go. Important to take care of it.” I nodded in solemn agreement, hypnotized by the images in my mind of the heart’s early journey into existence.
“Now in Traditional Chinese Medicine, the heart is more than just a pump for our blood. It’s the ruler of all the organs, sending messages to all the other organs making sure the body works efficiently. It’s intuitive. It knows things that the brain cannot, and it’s the coordinator of all activity: the mental, emotional, spiritual, and physical. They also call it our shen house, the house where our soul lives. Very fascinating.” He turned the avocado pit around and added a few strands of hair to the sides and back. I watched as he carefully selected where the hair strands would be and let my mind imagine a heart with a little crown and scepter telling all the other organs to do their job.
“Hey,” my Dad said, pulling me back from my day dream. “You know what they call a baby’s heartbeat when it’s still in the womb?” I shook my head. “Embryonic Heart Rate.” He tossed the avocado pit to me and I looked at the back of the head. EHR was carved in the back. My Dad’s initials, or, I suppose and acronym for embryonic heart rate. I giggled. It was a perfect conclusion to Dr. Rectra’s lecture.
That lecture, the origins of the heart and its various functions and meanings in both western and eastern medicine, has been influential in my studies as of late. I shifted careers in 2020, moving away from the corporate world to study yoga, meditation, taoist yoga, and even a bit of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). The heart represents so much, love, courage, passion, but for me represents a slice of family history, my intuition, and my soul. It’s my totem and reminder to speak from the heart.
“If you speak from the heart, it goes to the heart.”
