I began annotating as early as the dedication: “To the truth tellers and the truth seekers to those who live honestly now and to the others who will one day and last, but not least, to those courageous enough to love in a way that only creates freedom.” I loved her reflections on all we can learn from the resilience of children and the lesson that with so many things, “First it will be challenging, and then you’ll be free.” Through her own struggles, she lifts up the words of Hazrat Inayat Khan: “God breaks the heart again and again and again until it stays open.” She considers devastation to be “a crossroads with a choice: to remain in the ashes or to forge ahead unburdened,” and believes that the hardest moments can serve as “an opening for reflection.” Her willingness to see the hope in hardship led me to feel ready to accept the complexities of life in a global pandemic and a racial justice reckoning.Īs the title suggests, the book is full of inspiration. The Beauty in Breaking particularly resonated for me because the difficult moment of history we are living through is reflected in so many of the challenging situations that Harper navigates throughout the book. Her stories encourage readers “to learn to distinguish enabling from helping, codependence from love” and “to pay careful and thoughtful attention to the roots of what makes us healthy.” She takes readers through seemingly impossible and inspirational moments, often overlapping, reminding us that all of our lives impact each other and that that can be a cause for hope. In this time that can be so painful, it’s good to be reminded that the challenges we are facing can lead to new beginnings. In the book, Harper, an emergency room doctor, reflects on brokenness as a catalyst for healing through stories about her experiences as a doctor and hospital administrator. The Beauty in Breaking: A Memoir by Michele Harper is exactly the balm I needed at the end of 2020. $27/hardcover $16/paperback (available in July) $13.99/eBook.

The beauty in breaking