Sometimes it is a good idea
to purchase your dishes
& decorations at the dollar store
Especially if you are a person
that loves colored glass & breakable items
& if you have little children in your life.
It is my life’s experience that
there will be occasional breakage.
This thought somehow leads me
To think about people & the high
expectations that we often have of them
& how these unreasonable expectations
can cause us to view people
As fine china secured high up on a shelf
rather than as touchable
& loved pieces of breakable art.
How many times do we expect
people to be pristine, flawless, untenable perfections
When in reality we are all
Extraordinarily – ordinary pieces
of homespun & yet lovely,
touchable & thus breakable art?
Of course there are going to be mishaps
Of course there is going to be breakage.
What else can happen?
What other possibility is there?
When lovely but breakable pieces of beauty
Are often times held
in ordinary & sometimes clumsy hands?
I have personally never been a person
That has a need for fine china in my life
Perhaps it is because I am not someone
Who wants to bring out something
Only once a year to enjoy it
Maybe it is because
I want to touch the experiences that I see,
& know the beauty that lives before me.
Albeit. Let’s be real.
Seeing something.
Touching something,
Holding something,
Loving something can reveal
& can even cause
some of the cracks & the chips
that will inevitably be a result
Of this well worn love
of any beloved piece of art in our lives.
And so it is with people.
We are all God’s masterpieces
And although HE holds us tenderly;
We are often held in the hands
of the awkward & inexperienced
hands of humanity.
We will all inevitably experience
Some form of breakage
As we are formed, & loved,
sometimes held, & other times discarded.
We will form – Cracks in our exteriors.
Weakness in our inner parts.
Breakage & brokenness.
& YET, I believe
that, – none of us really desires to be fine china.
None of us wish to be put on a shelf.
Never touched. Never truly understood.
We need to be loved
We desire to be experienced.
We want to be known
in our extraordinary-ordinary-ness.
We hoped to be treasured
In our messiness. In our simplicity
In our everyday reality.
In the end.
If we experience life well enough,
We will discover that there is no such thing
as fine china or perfect art.
We are all flawed. We are all imperfect.
Hopefully, We will all come to the conclusion
that it is far better to love well that which we love
& love well those that we love.
In all their imperfections & in all their flaws.
The chips. The cracks. The dents. The bumps ;
than it is to pretend that our fine china has any real value in the needs of our deepest heart ❤️
Because herein lies, the truth of this matter:
“The well-worn treasure of a person’s very soul
is of so much more worth
than un known prize upon the shelf.