The cracks that set us free

Exactly a year ago I boarded a flight to Nepal. The months that followed were punctuated by cracks in the earth, cracks in my bones, cracks in my heart, cracks in my courage, cracks in my perception of reality. 

At first the cracks left me feeling like everything was broken. But now I see them differently. After all, a little chick must crack her egg shell in order to embrace the sun and the air. And the mountains that left me speechless with their majesty in the Himalayas would not exist if it weren't for those violent jolts, those tectonic shifts, those unrepairable crevices. 

Tomorrow I fly to Laos to begin a new chapter, grateful for the cracks...for they have set me free.