An illustration of a broken heart with a crack running down the middle, set against a red sky with a desert road in the foreground. The scene includes a tree of tears, two women, and a road sign that reads 'Route 66,' with the text 'Heartbreak' and the number 6.

6     HEARTBREAK              

KEY CONCEPTS:  grief, absence, rupture, delay, letting go, releasing attachments.

MESSAGE:  Has grief recently howled its mournful way into your world?  We may not like to admit it, but sometimes the journey can be brutal.  On the Route we all yearn to form attachments, cleaving to beloved friends and cherishing road-trip snapshots.  Each grasping embrace tethers affection to people, places or even to the glory days of our heart’s former content.  No matter how tragic or unfair your circumstance, remember:  a heart can only be broken when it was first attached to something.  No one can hang on to yesterday, dear traveler.  Sooner or later all bonds break, and with that rupture our hearts, too, will shatter. 

People walking the Trail of Tears were intimate with painful loss and grief.  Crushing despair, hunger, and hardship became persistent travel companions.  How could anyone mend a heart so damaged?  Some would say it cannot be done.  But despite the loss of thousands of lives during forced removal, the Cherokee tribe maintained their political structure, social cohesion and sovereignty while rebuilding educational systems, revitalizing their native language and creating a new home after dispossession.

When old fires are extinguished and new ones kindled, debts are forgiven, grudges are set aside and grievances are resolved.  No matter how impossible it seems, it is only through releasing attachments that people may mend their fractured hearts.  In the world of Spirit, the only thing a broken-hearted traveler can cling to is the act of letting go.              

RELATED SITES:  TRAIL OF TEARS MEMORIAL, JEROME, MO; THE NORTHERN ROUTE OF THE TRAIL OF TEARS RAN FROM ST. JAMES, MO TO SPRINGFIELD, MO; MARAMEC SPRING PARK, ST. JAMES, MO;  CHEROKEE HERITAGE CENTER, PARK HILL, OK; TRAIL OF TEARS MEMORIAL, OKLAHOMA CITY, OK.  THE CHEROKEE DIDN’T WALK ALONE ON THEIR JOURNEY; OTHER TRIBES SHARE SIMILAR HISTORY.  THE HOMELANDS OF 28 FEDERALLY RECOGNIZED TRIBES ARE WITHIN 50 MILES OF ROUTE 66, AS ARE ANCESTRAL TERRITORIES OF UNRECOGNIZED TRIBES. CHECK POLICIES PRIOR TO PLANNING VISITS.