Article Link: http://exchangepress.com/article/reimagining-heartbreak/5027435/
Shelly Brandon has written the book “Reimagining Heartbreak: An Educator’s Journey to Reclaim Whole-Heartedness” for the Reimagining Our Work (ROW) Collection by Exchange Press. The following is the Foreword to the book by Ann and Margie.
“There is a crack, a crack in everything,” Leonard Cohen sings in his “Anthem.” “That’s how the light gets in.”
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
This could be the theme song for this book. Shelley’s stories about her forest explorations with toddlers ring with aching beauty, with marvel, but not because of any perfect offering. They ring with Shelley’s presence to the children and to the forest. They ring with her “feeling so deeply that I am startled into a different level of awareness.” They ring with the ways in which Shelley shows up with as much awareness and willing vulnerability as she can muster.
In Shelley’s presence, her awareness, her vulnerability, we see the crack appear—the crack of Shelley’s heart breaking open. And what light shines through that crack! The light of tenderness and empathy, humility and self-awareness, courage and tears and surprising new ...