According to my 8 year old artist who painted this picture, "All broken things can be put back together. And they can be made to look nice again."
Now let's rewind to 30 minutes before the picture was painted.
We had been in the living room downstairs, working on a school project. All done, I stood up, grabbed my phone and laptop; and asked my daughter to ensure she packs up all the stuff before leaving the living room. She had some left over cardboards, container of colour pencils, markers, scissors, glue, etc. As I turned the corner, I glanced back, she had picked up the container and stuffed a lot into it. As I walked towards the staircase, I reminded her "Don't forget to come back for your laptop 💻 and books📚"
A few moments later, I watched as she reached the first landing of the stairs, hands full, the overflowing container balancing precariously on books sitting on the laptop she clutched with her little hands. I wanted to scream "don't do that" but paused as I knew it was a thin line between scolding her and making her lose balance. Hopefully, she could complete the second shorter flight of stairs unscathed.
She took the next step to ascend the second flight of stairs. And then it happened. The laptop slipped out of her hands and started its descent down the stairs. And we both watched as it hit the stairs severally until it landed on the floor downstairs. It opened up and pieces fell out. Her face fell sadly and I chided myself for not stopping her in time.
Shortly after, she brought me this painting of a broken vase pieced back together. The black lines show how the pieces were re-joined. Yes, she loves loves art. In her words, "All broken things can be put back together. And they can be made to look nice again."
And that taught me some valuable lessons.
💠 Things break... not just stuff... our goals may not be realized, plans may fail, relationships disintegrate, etc.. It is a normal occurrence of life.
💠 What matters is how we respond. We must forgive ourselves. Find solace in what we know and love. For my daughter, her solace was in art.
💠 Pick up the pieces and begin the process of putting them back together, knowing that it can be made nice again.
I hope this inspires you to embrace those broken pieces, whether they be stuff or plans or relationships... and begin the process of putting the pieces back together with the certainty that they can be fixed and will be nice again.
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