Ernest Hemingway once said, “we are all broken, thats how the light gets in.” And if you stop to really access that statement, it is profoundly deep. In the first interception with the concept of being broken, many will shun away from the concept, many will be in denial, but for those of you who embrace the “broken” pieces that make you whole, well that’s where courage and growth festers.
Many of us dismiss the very thought of our brokenness; we refuse to acknowledge it let alone accept the pieces that were once whole. As a society, we have been trained to believe that broken is bad, that broken is shameful, that broken is less than desirable. But what if that is just another fallacy? What if our broken pieces are actually the pieces that make us stand apart from the rest, that help us to illuminate the slivers of light that beam through us? What if I told you that being broken is exactly what it takes to become whole? Ponder on that for just a moment if you dare.
Everyone breaks in life. Whether it be from their first heartache, from their first disappointment, from their first profound loss, from anything minuscule or vast. To deny this concept is to deny the truth. Now that doesn’t automate a negative notion has to be attached to broken; instead consider the beauty it takes to break apart into someone new, someone different.
Being beautifully broken is the very essence of what we need as individuals to truly get to the core of what makes us who we are, what makes us unique in form. It is the trials and tribulations that have tested us and have completely disrupted our lives that cause shape to our worlds, that redefine the very person we are. Being broken is part of life; it is the very essence of what it is to be human: to break us down to our core beings. What if we as a society could learn to accept and nourish the experiences that have altered the very essence of our livelihoods? Could you see the beauty in our defeats, in our breaks? Could you learn to love all that has been at once torn apart? I think you should, or at the very least, try to.
For not one single person escapes their lives without encountering massive and minor traumas along the way. Think of it like a testament of your will power, of your ability to grow, of your ability to see the lessons of life. Of course each person is different, each one having their own battles to conquer and their own lessons to learn. So think of life in the terms of a life line. At birth we are whole, we are without any true form of hardship, of trauma, and as we begin to live, as the days turn to years, inevitably we experience cracks as we go through trials. Now the very depth of how we deal and overcome with those trials then begins to alter our perception, shape our ability to progress in life, experience after experience. And as life continues, what was once whole has beautiful cracks that are unique to only one, that are the points that separate what was once something else.
And when you envision hundreds and thousands of cracks all over your body, can you envision light beaming through them? Light of knowledge, light of growth, light of sheer courage, light illuminating love? For that’s what I envision when I think of Hemingway’s statement: “we are all broken, thats how the light gets in.” We need to change the perception so that there is understanding that being broken from our original version is at the very foundation of how we grow, of how we evolve. Sure some parts of the cracks in us were painful, some resilient, some elaborate and some simple, but they are imprinted in us nonetheless. So why not take ownership in them? Why not be proud and respectful of all that it once took to break.. to evolve into someone else?
Must we always associate negativity with the notion of being broken? Of breaking through? Consider for a moment a caterpillar. We all understand that the caterpillar is not meant to stay in form forever. For everyone knows that when the time comes for a caterpillar, it will begin to break down its protective casing until eventually it breaks through entirely, radically transforming from its original whole version and emerging as a butterfly, something completely different in form. Now when we think of the butterfly, do we associate negativity with it? No, of course not, we see the butterfly for all of its beauty, for all of its unique strengths to transcend. Now, why can’t we apply that same concept to our broken parts? How is it any different? It isn’t. Find the beauty in your “broken” parts, for its those parts that set you apart from the rest, that brings light through.
Just Janke 