May 2012: The Cracks That Make Us Whole
05.02.2012 | 0 comments

One of my favorite quotes, spoken and written in many forms since its original utterance:

Blessed be the cracks, for that is how the light gets in.

As I witnessed and heard from so many of you last month – the month of the Personal Theme – I was struck by how many of you worked beautifully, intelligently, fearlessly, with material that required a tremendous amount of Faith in your inner strength and courage to change. And what seemed to thread through all of the inquiry and wondering was the one thing that I believe leads to our deepest, most insightful soul-knowing: vulnerability.

So often, particularly in modern, developed cultures, we are taught to be strong and not show ‘weakness’ – in order to prove ourselves, stand strong against the [perceived] competition, and get ahead in the world. In reality, the very opposite thing happens with the accumulation of time, as we layer on the superhero facade: we lose strength, feel exhausted, and end up wondering what we’ve been doing with our lives all this time.

Enter vulnerability. The cracks. Those aspects of ourselves that make us perfectly imperfect, inviting us to learn more about ourselves and stop spending so much energy caulking and cementing in those cracks.

The quote is exactly correct: these cracks are the very thing that let in more light. If we allow our vulnerabilities to show and be felt, they can be our greatest ally and teacher. As we turn to face the cracks in our system, we open to the possibility that we don’t know everything, that we can stand to learn more, and that great teachings can come from outside of us – whether from other people or the greater field of consciousness.

It’s like trying to plug holes in a dam that is ready to break. More cracks will come. It will be harder to fill them up. The amount of energy expended to keep the dam intact will become more than the energy to allow the cracks to seep and tell their stories.

This month, welcome cracks of all kinds: the cracks that you know are there, the ones that you have been trying to plug, the ones that you would like to instigate, and the ones that you didn’t even know were there. Be willing to get cracked wide open, to learn something about yourself that you didn’t know – even if it involves a good measure of the uncomfortable unknown that often comes with the invitation to be vulnerable.

Be curious about what lies beyond the walls of your comfort zone, and the things that you do to try and keep that wall intact. Likewise, be curious about your internal wisdom and how it can help you navigate the tenuous road of vulnerability.

This quote, as sung by Leonard Cohen:

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

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