The Beauty in the Cracks

The years keep ticking by. Quietly at first, then all at once. And somewhere along the way, I started to notice something: the most beautiful hearts I’ve encountered... have dents in them.

Not dents in a broken sense, but in the way a well-loved teacup might show a chip at the rim, or how an old leather journal softens and creases from the stories it’s held. The kind of marks that come from living deeply, from loving hard, from showing up—again and again.

It turns out, the most radiant people I know have been cracked open a few times. By loss. By grief. By joy so overwhelming it spilled out in tears. And each time, something softened. Something deepened. Something shined.

I’ve come to believe there’s grace in every wrinkle, every scar, every fragile, tender place in us. They’re not flaws to hide—they're maps of where we've been. Evidence that we’ve felt, survived, healed, and grown.

I used to think beauty was in the polished, the put-together, the unscarred. Now I know—it’s in the ones who’ve lived through the mess and still choose to love. Still choose hope. Still get up in the morning and try again.

So, here’s to the beautifully dented hearts. The ones with stories etched into their edges. The ones who carry both ache and awe in the same breath. You are not broken. You are becoming. And you are breathtaking. You are proof that love and loss are not opposites—they are companions, walking us home.

Becky Shaffer

www.liveinconfidence.com