It is only through letting our heart break that we discover something unexpected: The heart cannot actually break, it can only break open.  

  What breaks when we are touched by life's pain is the contraction around our heart that we have been carrying for so long.  

  When we feel both our love for this world and the pain of this world- together, at the same time- the heart breaks out of this shell.  

  Then the heart's true character is revealed-as an openness, an acute sensitivity where we feel the world inside us and are not separate from it.  

  This is like removing a bandage and exposing our flesh to the air.  
  
  There is no way to avoid this rawness, except by living in a state of contraction.  To live with a broken-open heart is to experience life full strength"

John Welwood- from "Love & Awakening"