Fragments of hope and life

Give new life by mending the broken

Imagine a piece of pottery, beautifully crafted by loving hands, painted and glazed into a pot to serve a unique purpose. Perhaps you will use it as a vase to display fragrant flowers, or it will adorn a bookshelf as a piece of art, void of contents. Maybe it will serve as a jug for home-brewed ice tea, or contain milk for a small child. Whatever its purpose, it is beautiful all on its own.

One day, while dusting the shelf, you pick up your pot and admire it once more. Suddenly, some invisible force startles you and your beautiful pot slips out of your hands and falls to the ground, breaking into dozens of fragments.

You stare at what you have done, admonishing yourself for such clumsiness.

The pot no longer exists, it is gone, shattered beyond recognition. Small and large shards lay scattered across the shiny hardwood floor.

Resigned, you bend down to pick up the pieces one by one, reflecting on what once was and no longer is now.

As you look at the remnants in your hand, you find yourself scheming a way to put the pot back together. The fragments are sharp, their edges able to cut flesh into bleeding wounds, but they appear to conform to each other like wayward puzzle pieces.

Slowly, a vision forms in your head. You lay the fragments onto the floor and begin to fit them together. Your scheming continues. Can the pot be mended, made whole again?

Something is missing. You need glue, or some type of cement.

The project evolves into a major production, and you immerse yourself into the shaping of a new pot. The glue cements the larger fragments back into place and you find yourself filled with hope and longing. Will it work? Will all the shards find their place in their former home?

Perhaps the pot will reside on the shelf once again for all to see.

Your focus is razor-sharp and you work diligently to repair the damage inflicted upon your beautiful pot. Finally, you succeed, and a semblance of the previous - unbroken - pot takes shape in front of your eyes.

You inspect the remodeled pot and marvel at your cleverness.

Except now there are scars.

At first, you hesitate. Can the pot inject the same joy as before, with these newly presented flaws? Certainly, its usefulness has altered beyond its original ability to contain liquid. It can no longer hold fresh flowers, the water will seep through the cracks and damage the shelf

Dried flowers might work...

You look at your pot, willing it to send sparks of joy into your heart once again.

The newly formed pot with its scars and flaws reminds you of its previous state of purity, now departed, never to return. The craters and cracks, filled with cement and glue, resemble dried tears of the thing it once was.

But it doesn't matter. The pot is back on its shelf where it presides in rejuvenated wholeness.

This anecdote came out completely differently than the article I originally had in mind. I was stuck and unable to get the words to flow.

The morning of my self-imposed publishing date (Fridays for Bella Luna), I finally reached for my Tarot cards. Perhaps they will help me tie together the thousands of words I wrote and stored as drafts in various folders…

And lo, they did.

Two cards dropped out of my shuffling hand, the Seven of Wands on top.

As I looked at the card, I thought “this is me, mismatched shoes and all, writing and catastrophizing what I was trying to say and not finding a way to make it resonate.”

Maybe he imagined a battle, our man with the mismatched shoes. He was just taking a nap when he woke with a start and reached for the nearest available shoes, not caring about style or fashion trends.

The man in the card is standing up for himself, ready to battle whatever fight he thinks is out there, about to attack him.

Is he imagining things? Maybe it’s an internal battle…

Once out in the world, he notices other wands - fire energy - but they’re grounded in the soil, steady and unassuming, not held by warriors swinging them like swords as if under imminent attack.

What is it trying to tell me, the Seven of Wands?

Am I trying too hard, imagining strife or writer’s block where there is none? Is that it?

I argue with myself about what I want to write, and yet the words I come up with have nothing to do with the original thoughts in my head.

Instead, I end up writing about broken pottery, about fragments and shards.

It begs some questions:

Can we fix what’s broken?

Or

Is it really broken?

Or

What is broken?

We can’t bring back those who have departed, but we can find a way to piece together their essence, the truths which they brought into our lives during their stay here on earth alongside us.

Today’s memories are embossed with scars and cracks, held together by the glue of tears.

Each fragment contains a version of truth. Yes, there is longing and pain, regret and sorrow, but there is also gratitude for what once was, joy and bliss rising like lava toward the surface, trying to emerge from below the crust.

So we look at the mended pot on the shelf. We see the fragments surrounded by cracks until the essence of a memory enters our minds.

---

So what does the Seven of Wands tell us? What’s the advice?

Keep going, despite the scars and flaws. The wand can protect you if you use it right. But don’t seek battle where there is none.

I looked at The Fool 0 card, the first card of the tarot deck and the first card in the Major Arcana. The young and foolish man begins his journey through the tarot seemingly innocent and unencumbered, full of joy and life, hope and dreams. He’s so happy seeking new adventures, he has unwavering trust that all is well in his world.

The moment is now, here in the present, he says.

He has no care in the world.

The little white dog however, his faithful companion, is aware of imminent dangers. He barks to alert the foolish Fool to pay attention before he plunges off the cliff.

So what does the Fool tell us? What’s the advice?

Embrace adventure and the present moment, but allow wisdom and life experience to guide you though the challenges. Pay attention to your surroundings; you are not an isolated island in this world.

Like the man in the Seven of Wands, the Fool carries a wand. If needed, he can protect himself, assert for himself.

What about the broken pot with all its fragments and shards?

The broken pot is a figment of my imagination, although if I open a few cabinets in my home, I’m sure I’ll find some broken pieces of pottery, real or proverbial, waiting to be mended.

Thank you for reading.

Photos of the pottery shards by Pauline Back Porch Studio. Visit her website, blog and store here: backporchstudio.blog