Peace in Pieces

Linking with the Wed Muse # 7 "A Beautiful Mess"

Thank you for another wonderful prompt Toni!

Today Toni is having us explore the Japanese art of Kintsugi and how to make the most of breaks, cracks, mistakes.  Kintsugi is the repairing of a break or a crack with gold. It was created in the 5th century when a shogun broke his favorite tea cup.  He didn't want to throw the cup away but he wanted to continue to use it. 

 She is asking us all to write a poem in any form about the healing in your life - how you have repaired the cracks and breaks, about your scars, how you have triumphed or are trying to persist.  How you let the light shine through the cracks, how you grow stronger. 

If a mistake is not a stepping stone, it is a mistake. ~Eli Siegel

Note:

I could write many things about this, because if mistakes were worth money I would be rich indeed!

If I were a bowl sitting on the table

I would be cracked in countless places

No more soup eating in this one

 Maybe a place to put sweet-n-low

Or ketchup packets

You see

I have a tendency to fall

Not just the slipping on ice kind

I make decisions with my broken heart

Leaving my whole mind out of the equation

Not everyone and everything

Can be alright at the same time

But I would sure try to make it so

It is a behavior that has

Taken away my peace

My money

My health

And others sobriety

Slowly with glue

And a lot of growth

I have healed

Seeing others heal

And they grew

With God’s help

Not mine

There is a peace now

I did not know before

Holding the burden of other’s hurts

Is a heavy and weary place

That only adds to our own pain

Letting go is such a simple thing

Yet so profoundly hard

It is a lesson I have learned slowly

And will be learning for the rest of my life

 piece by piece

Like fragments of broken glass

Being placed back together

One piece at a time

To make me complete again.

Note 2:  I have talked about it many times in my other posts, but I am the mother of a recovery addict alcoholic.    I am so very thankful that he has been clean and sober for going on 5 years in July, but looking back, I know in my heart that I slowed that process.  My trying to help kept him from truly getting the help he needed.  That is something that I will have to live with for the rest of my life.  All I ever wanted was for him to be whole, happy, and live a good life.  By the grace of God that is now so. 

The Keeper of The Keys,

Image: Lee Friedlander, 1966

Magpie # 96

"When you say a situation or a person is hopelss, you are slamming the door in the face of God."

~Charles L. Allen

We have all heard of someone like that

you know the one that whispers are stirred from
like rubble in a dust storm

there's one in every town and maybe around the corner

a coffee table conversation piece from the wrong side of the tracks
everyone has heard one story or another

it is a person that you would never let step foot in your door

who knows what would happen

or what would be taken

so you never

take a

chance

or

give

the

time

of

day

you

have

more

important

things

to

do

than

even

look

their

way

just

keep

walking

don't

get

too

close

or

open

windows
or
doors.




We think that we are above it; throwing stones, and giving up,but we do it in so many ways not blinking an eye.  You do not have to hold a rock in your hand and throw it at someone's dirrection to have committed the act of judging another's actions, or deciding they are beyond repair. We put God inside a box, lock it, and then play His part.  We think we are the keeper of the keys, but God just allows us to turn them within our freewill. We think we can descern what is worthy of reaching out for to save. Oh the blessings we miss out on when we do not let God open up the door to what is possible in this world.

All That We Behold

"All that we behold is full of blessings. " ~William Wordsworth

What we see when we look at the world has a way of changing from the time we are youngsters, to adulthood.  The view through that familiar living room window changes light.  We no longer see with a sense of fascination.  The magical goggles somehow get removed from those brilliant eyes.   Then bifocals replace them with a mundane outlook.  The only way to see that glorious vision again is to remove the layers of practical callus upon the soul, and see like a child once more.

I have always believed that you can learn more from a child than you can a text book, when it comes to the matters of the heart.  They wear their heart out on their sleeve, and do not mind sharing how they feel or what they see.  We learn to be patient in their haste, and we learn to be honest from the example and tendernous of a child's presence.  They see the world as an adventure and a wonder.  There is a certain grace in innocense, and a graciousness in the innocense of a child.  They are open to love and acceptance of others.  Something that we could use having a little more of in our adult lives. 

Another Thanksgiving is arriving once again.  The holiday season is always a busy time, making it easy to loose sight of the simple pleasures that matter most.  So I challenge myself and anyone that wants to venture with me to put back on those magical goggles of a child.  To see the world and all it's beauty, knowing that there are so many blessing in every direction we look.  We have so much to be thankful for.  Just take a peek out your living room window, and you will get your first glimpse.

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone in blog land! 


Sharing with Imaginary Gardens With Real Toads

Also linking with Poets United Poetry Pantry # 76

A Certain Kind of Strength

There is a certain kind of hope that comes from emerging empty handed from tribulation's fire, knowing you have survived with nothing more to loose and surely everything to gain.

There is a certian kind of grace that comes from crossing the threshold of forgiveness, to know the difference between being it's giver and the vulnerability of being it's grateful receiver.

There is a certain kind of strength that comes from reaching out, not to pick up the heavy burden, but instead to humbly lay it down.

Consider This.....

Imperfect Prose with Emily take a look you will be blessed.

In a perfect world, would there be an absence of mercy, grace, and compassion, for they were no longer a necessity?.......

Or possibly would it be a perfect world because they were in abundance?