Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack, a crack in everything
That’s how the light gets in.
– Leonard Cohen

“Heartbreak is surely an experience for each of us, for all of us, in this life,” write Ann Pelo and Margie Carter in their foreword to Shelley Brandon’s beautiful book, Reimagining Heartbreak. They explain:

“Pema Chödrön writes that, ‘When we don’t close off and we let our hearts break, we discover our kinship with all beings.’

“…This is the light that will illuminate our way forward. Shelley’s stories bring alive the experience of kinship: toddlers, the trees and other beings who inhabit the forest, and Shelley, made kin by whole-heartedness. There is no more perfect offering than presence, no more perfect offering than opening ourselves to sorrow and joy, no more perfect offering than our hearts.”