I have decided to tell stories about the beautiful moments that break open my heart. When I connect to my own heart in this way, I become more aware of the children’s hearts.
– Shelley Brandon, Reimagining Heartbreak

We were recently inspired by this poem from @hannahowrites which we discovered on early childhood consultant and coach Richard Cohen’s social feed:

Until I thought of myself as the sea

I used to separate good days from bad until I thought of myself as an ocean. I used to split times I felt strong from when I felt weak until I imagined myself as the sea. Calm and rocky, wild and soft, still and powerful and vast and more than any one thing. In the ocean it’s hard to divorce one mood from another, one wave from the next. Now, on my worst days, I think of how good life is too, how I still can greet joy while swimming through grief. How fragile strength feels. How I’m not any one thing in any one moment on any one day. I’m all of it and all of it is me.

Hannah O’s poem reminded us of Shelley Brandon’s reflections in Reimagining Heartbreak:

“I reimagine heartbreak as a breaking-open of my heart, into new possibilities. What if I break open my heart in order to learn something about myself, to elicit an emotional response that I hadn’t experienced before? What if I break open my heart to expose my vulnerabilities, to stir my emotions and make me a more engaged, attentive educator, and human? What if I break open my heart to create time and space to linger in the swell of emotions?”