To be broken

Strength and growth come only through continuous effort and struggle.

Napoleon Hill

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“We are all wonderful, beautiful wrecks. That's what connects us--that we're all broken, all beautifully imperfect.”
― Emilio Estevez

Life is a journey that is best lived through experience and acceptance of said experiences.  There is no way to live a life fully without the possibility of becoming broken at one time or another.  We are all bound by our hurts, pains and brokenness.  It's how we learn to live with and deal with the shattered pieces and torn moments of our life that truly and completely defines who we are as people and also the magnitude to which we live out our lives. 

We have become a culture that compares ones broken pieces to another persons broken pieces.   We allow that to define who has the right to hurt and suffer more based on the situation to which one was shattered.  The problem with that is there is no definition of what it means to suffer.  A woman who is raped is no less broken down than a man that lost his wife to infidelity.  A man that was abused is no less broken than a woman who lost her parents.  The pain we travel through is individual, it is not less or greater than another persons.  It is the same and it is painful.  It's the times of trial and how we handle them that make up the life we live. 

Broken people, like all, have a choice on how they will allow the brokenness to define and dictate their lives.  It doesn't matter what your situation is.  If you have have experienced pain that has broken you, then you are broken, what that experience was is irrelevant. What is relevant is how you let it define you and shape you.  Do you, in your pain, strike out at another and hurt them?  Or rather do you allow your pain and broken pieces to heal through helping another in their moments of brokenness? 

How you choose to handle these moments will set the course for who you become when the pieces are put back together and you become a more whole version of yourself.  And regardless of where you are now, you will heal.  It may not seem possible now, but in time you will heal.  You may never forget those that hurt you or the situation that shattered you, but you will carry on to live another day and eventually you will learn to smile again.