Homefront: The Story of the Perfectly Blue Broken Urn

I found this gorgeous robin's egg blue urn several weeks ago at a garage sale for $2. It was so lovely and I thought it would make a beautiful home for one of my succulents. I had it on our fireplace next to the afghan draped white chair for about two days, before this happened. My 4 yr old thought it would be a perfect holder for his toy cars, so he picked it up to collect them, swinging it a bit, then dropped it when he realized how large and heavy it was.

I loved the details, the deep, milky aqua color, the way the glaze showcased each distressed placement, the iron handles and their handles and the large, raised fleur di lis. The square base of the urn had an elegantly curved taper. Not to mention, it looked so pretty in that perfect spot, next to the white chair by the fireplace.

Sure I was upset, for about 5 minutes. While sweeping up the pieces, it occurred to me I could probably crazy glue it together, and it would be just fine. But, I decided to let it go. I really had other important things to attend to and knew that I could not be angry, or spend too much energy over this. I needed to conserve that energy and do a brain dump. 

All unimportant matters needed to flow out to make room for everything else going on in my life. Also, I did not want to spend this time upset at my oldest son for breaking something. He's broken a lot, and I'm sure will do so again, but holding on to every one of them is not healthy for me, for his self-esteem, or for my relationship with him.

parker fitzgerald

The truth is, things break. Kids do it, I've done it, and I'm pretty sure you've done it too. We have to learn to move on from that broken thing, and more importantly to forgive the breaker of that thing. Whether the thing was broken out of malice, accident... or if you have multiple kids, a mystery.... you need to let it go.

That thing may have been a family heirloom, it may have been a piece of junk you were going to donate anyways... it may have been of great value or it may have been made of flesh and bone, that required stitches and a cast. Maybe it can quickly be repaired, or replaced, maybe it can only live on in our memories.

Whether you decide to glue it together, or throw it out, or keep a shard, be sure to mend that break in your heart over that broken thing.