The Beauty in Breaking

The beauty in breaking is the title of a book by Michelle Harper, an emergency medicine physician. Michelle writes about her own childhood trauma and failed relationships intertwined with stories of patients she sees in the ER. The point that she makes throughout the book is that our brokeness and vulnerability are windows for growth and transformation. This is a theme that I have seen over and over again in my own life and in the stories shared with me by those touched by breast cancer. Vulnerability is necessary for transformation. Before the caterpillar transforms into a beautiful butterfly, it is goo inside a cacoon. We may feel like our lives are sometimes reduced to goo but we shouldn’t dispair. That goo is our respite, our time to transform, to heal, to grow.