life is fragile.
have you ever dropped your favorite caffeinated beverage containment unit? You know, the one you have your morning coffee with… daily? That special mug that no matter how much you wash it, has that beautiful circumferential remnant stain providing a unique taste from years of glorious liquid that has seen you through many difficult days.
Yes that one…I can’t be the only one with a mug like that!! or that HAD a mug like that.
without fail, like most things in life, tragedy struck one faithful morning as I watched it leave my fingertips and smash into a plethora of pieces on the tile floor. With a sunken, heavy heart I watched as time itself seemed to shift to a crawl and yet there was nothing my clumsy, tired hands could do. For what felt like hours, I wrestled with disbelief, wretched with overwhelming emotion at the chaotic mess my very own hands had created… with teary eyes, and a trembling voice, I could only utter the words “I’m sorry”.
with the amount of pieces the above mentioned mug came to rest into, there was no humanly way possible to put it back together. no amount of crazy glue would hold the hundreds of pieces together. And even if it were possible to somehow reconstruct what once was, it would not be the same and likely would quickly fall a part again or the liquid it was meant to contain would find its way through the inevitable spaces left where the adhesive missed. One could spend days or even weeks meticulously attempting to repair the fragile brokenness, but it would never be the same.
But what if we could take those broken pieces, the bigger intact chunks – discarding the insignificant, useless bits and dust – and create something new; something beautiful; with a new meaning and purpose? What if, what was once a shattered mess can be turned into something beautiful again? It won’t serve the same purpose, but that certainly doesn’t mean it can’t be brought back to life in a new form; beautiful for others to see, admire and bring hope to those who have become hopeless that their mess or brokenness can never be used again for anything worth while.
In the case of the broken mug, those pieces could create a beautiful and unique mosaic. Re-purposed as a work of art, reminding us of what once was, but bringing a new joy, not forgetting the past, no, but there is always a way to make new from the old and broken.
So when the fragility of this life causes hopelessness; when situations or life events drop us into a million pieces, just know that you can be re-purposed; there is hope for a new day. I may take weeks, months or years, but a better life is waiting (to quote my other favorite band – Paper Route – Better Life ).
The road to becoming something new, developing the confidence to change and be molded into beauty again is another topic in itself. But there is hope. You are not the only one with a brokeness, we all have something we are dealing with. There are always pieces of us that are chipped away. Whether its the loss of relationships, a loss of love, health or a broken spirit, please know that your courage to continue can speak volumes to someone else, your hope for a better day ahead can tame the fear someone has to move forward through their own situation.
Life is Fragile – It can be broken – but It can be brought back to something beautiful and meaningful again….
This is amazing – what a fabulous idea. I just wrote a much shorter blog post about mosaics upon a really similar line and I was so excited to then find this post.