“Break a vase, and the love that assembles the fragments is stronger than that love which took its symmetry for granted when it was whole.”
~ Derek Walcott
The broken vase mentioned above could be a treasured object in your home, or it could be a relationship, marriage, family, business, career, state of happiness or health. How precious it is to see people who labor to preserve the good. They don’t take it for granted or walk away because the going gets tough. The love in their hearts finds a way to save what is precious and worth honoring.
Nice !
What a lovely post Evan. “The love that assembles the broken fragments of the vase is stronger than the love that took its symmetry for granted when it was whole..” Such a noble act it is, of assembling the broken fragments .. trying to save a treasured vase, or a relationship, or a marriage, or business. It mustn’t be easy to labor and put together the broken pieces of a once beautiful relationship or a marriage. It requires a lot of love, patience, strength and courage to stay put when the going is tough and difficult. Only a very loving person who values the good in a relationship, overlooks the small cracks, tries to reshape the lovely vase, the precious bond with effort and grace.
I sincerely pray that the loving God grants the needed strength, patience and love to enable us assemble the broken pieces of, be it a beautiful vase, or a business, a relationships a marriage or health and try restore it, to the original strength, beauty and glory.
Thank you so much, Evan, to remind me, that I experienced such a mending of a seeming broken friendship. Whereby I was the one who did the wrong . I think it was mainly her prayer which mended the friendship, and for that I am immensely grateful, because thats so very valuable. And I think the “Vase” in my case when mended now, looks nicer then on the picture above.:-)
I am so very grateful for everything we learn in Christian Science – that God is the Good over all and all.
What a beautiful thing to see first thing this morning. God always knows what we need.
Dearest Evan,
What a wonderful reminder to honour those in our lives that insist on seeing the complete picture; unbroken, unfallen. The Christ in all of us loves, holds on to the divine reality, the beauty of perfect God and therefore perfect man, holds off the error and sees through a more spiritual lens. This results in healing; the person love – on the receiving end, opening their eyes (therefore thought) to the error, denouncing it and setting themselves free to progress, rejoice, knowing their completeness and ultimate freedom.
This reminds me of the cracked water pot story (not sure how to copy and paste here, but you can google it) where the person carried two pots of water every day and the cracked pot leaked the water and felt badly. The moral of the story was that the pot watered flower seeds along the way each day, so even tho supposedly flawed, did a beautiful thing. Sometimes what seems like flaws originally or the mends in our challenges, makes us stronger… it helps us grow in understanding of what is really valuable.
Here’s a link to the story you reference…. http://amazingwomenrock.com/the-story-of-the-cracked-pot-for-anyone-whos-not-quite-perfect
Thank you, Anna
What a beautiful message and one that relates directly to my past experience. After the tragic ending of a dreadful marriage experience, over ten years later my spouse expressed sincere remorse, and over the next ten years the relationship was restored and we had 22 years together until his passing a couple of years ago. How grateful I am to have had this mended “pot” to carry in my memories!
Yes this is a lovely thought.
God, good, guards, guides, governs us. The 5 g’s 🙂 So many times when I need to know the directions to fix something I quietly wait for the answer and it comes. God does meet “…every human need”.
Beautiful! Thank you Evan, Anna, Carol, Lori.
Thank you Evan and all of you for your lovely comments. I have had experience of trying to reassemble an almost broken relationship and it’s not easy. A lot of love, humility and patience is needed but “Love is reflected in love” and divine Love is more powerful than anything that tried to harm a relationship. I love the verse in hymn 126 which says “Let love, in one delightful stream through every bosom flow; and union sweet, and dear esteem in every action glow”. Thank you also for reminding me of the lovely story of the woman with the water pots.
Thanks to all. What beautiful, helpful thoughts! I’ve experienced “mending” of the vase in my life, and it works. The bitterness associated with the “broken” vase vanished and was replaced with love and forgiveness.
This is a beautiful thought!
Wonderful analogy and great comments.
thanks to all.
What a choice today, the day this blog appeared in my inbox, is the exact same day my daughter moved back in with her parents. Lovely, time to see the relationship bloom full, full of the strength of our family bond. A great time of renewal, to destroy any regrets and make our whole family stronger.
Thank you for this post. When I birthed my son into this world shortly after I hemorrhaged so severely that I required 21 units of blood, and 3 separate surgeries the last being an emergency hysterectomy. The doctors were surprised that I made it. My hospital records stated, “high probability of life threatening deterioration”. But I made it.
It’s been 3 months and my very large incision is healing but my womb is empty. I feel like I was a beautiful vase that crashed into my pieces. And I can thank all of my surgeons, doctors and nurses for putting me back together.
So thank you to loving, skillful, patient people of the world who put “things” back together. It is because of you I am here and can appreciate other “broken” beauty.