It may seem counterintuitive to claim the benefits of having been broken, but it is precisely when cracks appear in the bedrock of what we thought we knew that the gravity of what has fallen away becomes evident. If we allow it, it can expand our space to transform, this potential space is slight, humble, and unassuming. Despite all these issues, the author takes accountability and leads her life toward finding a balance that leads to a peaceful and reassuring conclusion.īrokenness can be a remarkable gift. As you start the read, you notice how there is a lot of conflict and self-turmoil toward self-healing and self-discovery. This book was considered for the Dayton Literary Peace Prize because of the author's outcome by the end of the memoir. Of course, there will always be individuals who will never change, who will refuse to heal, but at least there's space for those who are willing to endure the hardships, endure the pain and emerge stronger than when they arrived. Her experiences and her view on brokenness stem from what she has encountered from patients who have taught her how one individual can be broken in many different ways but still find healing. In this memoir, the reader can witness her experience as an African American woman growing up in a wealthy but abusive household and how that shaped her purpose to help heal and serve others.Īs you read each chapter, you get insight into the stories that shaped Harper as an individual and as a physician in the 21st century. Reading this book, I had originally thought it was a novel, but to my surprise, it was a memoir. The importance now is to learn whether we have healed from these fractures. Whether that brokenness be physical, mental or spiritual, we are all struggling with our own invisible fractures that we make only selected people aware of. To further explain, the idea behind her experience as an African American female emergency physician is that each of us has been broken at one point in our lives. She states how we are all in fact broken, one way or another. In The Beauty in Breaking by Michele Harper, the author defies this question. The interesting thing about bones and fractures is that most of them heal, and one is able to function afterward - sometimes better and stronger than before. It is an interesting question to assess - what it is to be truly broken and whether we tie negativity within that brokenness. But what about all those individuals, including myself, who have never broken a bone? Does that mean that we have never been broken? Have you ever broken a bone? If you have, then you probably have thought that you are considered to be physically broken.

The beauty in breaking michelle harper