I don't know if I understand this sentence well..

“Think about your intentions,” Bao Bomu says. “What is in your heart, what you want to put in others.” And side by side, Ruth and her grandmother begin. Words flow. They have become the same person, six years old, sixteen, forty-six, eighty-two. They write about what happened, why it happened, how they can make other things happen. They write about what could have been, what still might be. They write of a past that can be changed. After all, Bao Bomu says, what is the past but what we choose to remember? They can choose not to hide it, to take what’s broken, to feel the pain and know that it will heal. They know where happiness lies, not in a cave or a country, but in love and the freedom to give and take what has been there all along.

-Excerption from <The Bonesetter’s Daughter> by Amy Tan



I wrote down whole paragraph for context. Confusing sentence is

"They can choose not to hide it, to take what’s broken, to feel the pain and know that it will heal."

Please check if I understand this sentence right.

I think this means by context' They can choose not to hide their past and take the broken past also, so that they feel the pain of the broken past and know that the broken past will heal'