Five Minute Friday: Broken
"Cars break down and people break down and other things break down, too, so let's go down together." ~The Refreshments
This week's five minute friday prompt - Broken - doesn't bring to mind cars or material items or even promises. It brings to mind people.
The world is broken. It is shattered into a million (billion) pieces, and all I want with my heart and soul right now is to put it back together again. Like the ever present egg, though, I'm afraid that if all the king's horses and all the king's men can't do it - well, how could I?
But I need to begin. I need to wash out some wounds with water and peroxide. I need to put on a soothing salve and bandage. Even if it's just a paper cut on the finger of this world, it's something.
Because there is one thing I know about this word - Broken. It didn't make me think of myself, and there was a time, not so long ago, when it would have. I am not broken, not any more.
I took a psychological inventory test thingy this week (MMPI-2), and the result came back almost painfully normal. I was shocked beyond reckoning. I call myself a little crazy, a little nuts, not quite all together. But as it turns out, just knowing my weaknesses (and my strengths) makes me NOT crazy, not nuts, not pathologically afflicted.
"Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now am found, was blind but now I see."
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| I made this in 2011 - not so very long ago. |
No, that's not a reference to the grace of God or Christian faith. At one point, I sang it bitterly, as a reference to how lost I was *in* the conservative Christian faith of my upbringing. But now...
I've been saved from brokenness, by the grace of good people. If it works for you, you can say that those people are the hands of God working in the world. I'm healed enough, now, that I can grant you that with no reticence. For me, I think, those hands and that grace ARE divinity, whatever you may call it.
"It makes me think of people - not things". I love this Mandie - that you think of people first. And what a great reminder ... that SOMETHING is better than nothing at all - so dive in and begin. And let others join you in the healing. Thanks for posting this week! - Jen
ReplyDeleteThis is good, Mandie. So good.
ReplyDeleteSure enough; I see what you mean about how it is the yang that fits with the yin that I've posted, but so much more than you know. Oh. My. Word. I wish we could sit down and talk about every line. Where do I start?
You see; my broken heart is not so much for me - but for others who are broken. I get upset and sad and frustrated and helpless, but only last night did I realize that those are symptoms of a broken heart. AND that letting my heart be broken is a good thing. And that realizing that's what it is can be another good thing - because it can give me direction. Purpose. And for that I can learn from what you've written. Wow.
Actually your post reminds me a bit of something that I posted just a few days ago - that "you gotta' do SOME thing." I'm going to be re-reading yours to help me think through what that next something might be.
But oh, yah, we have a couple other things in common, too. I grew up in a conservative church as well - for almost SIXTY years! - and have been outside for about four now. I am adjusting pretty well to the freedom to learn what grace is.
Oh, yah; good stuff!
Thanks again!