Beautiful for Being Broken

So on Facebook, one of my friends had posted this picture and it really got me thinking about some things and so I wanted to write a quick blog post, mostly just to record the feelings I was having more than anything else.

Because, to be honest, this is basically my journal. It just keeps me from whining as much as I would in a private journal, which I would really prefer my posterity reading. I have no problem with my great grandchildren knowing how weird I was, but some of the drama that inevitably goes into journals just doesn't need to be recorded, because awkward.

That aside, I think this idea that you can take something broken and show it was broken while adding to its beauty is amazing. It's a very optimistic approach to life. I was talking to Trenton last night and I suddenly got all emotional because we were talking about how sometimes I just care too much about trying to make other people happy and to show them I care about them. Why I got emotional was because I suddenly realized part of why I am that way. It's because I know what it felt like to have no friends. I know how it feels when someone says they hate you which is why I can't stand when other people say it, even if it's clear they're just being sarcastic or are joking.

All this happened a long time ago, and I am perfectly happy now. I know I have an incredibly supportive family, wonderful friends, and a fiance who is completely wonderful to me (and who I am marrying in 29 days!!) While some of the people involved in the problems I had before are now wonderful friends, who I dearly love, I guess last night I had a realization of how much that experience affected me. And while I wouldn't wish that on myself ever again, I truly think it made me better.

I am not going to say it made me "more beautiful" but it made me kinder. It made me care a lot more about the people around me, and I think that's definitely a benefit. I guess that's what is so comforting about the eternal perspective. Trials here and now stink. Times can be so hard and I know I've had moments where I have honestly felt like I just could not take what was happening, that there wasn't a way that my body could hold so much hurt.

However, through time and the love of others those broken pieces of us can be put back together, and that love sticks to us and helps us become stronger, better people.