Just Holly: The Broken Things

Just Holly: The Broken Things: The Broken Things I have an inordinate number of broken things in my house: chipped coffee cups, bowls and plates, DVD players ...

The Broken Things

The Broken Things

I have an inordinate number of broken things in my house: chipped coffee cups, bowls and plates, DVD players that don’t play DVDs, clocks that no longer tell time, a telescope missing a lens, vacuums that don’t vacuum, computers that don’t compute, a cabinet without a door, doors with no locks.  I could go on, but you get the point.

My husband, bless his heart, was a tinkerer.  He saw no reason to throw out anything, and I mean anything.  There was always a “fix” for whatever was broken.  He did fix many, many things.  And many things he never got around to fixing.  When his health failed, all that was broken stayed broken; and then the biggest broken of all happened to me.  I lost my husband and I was broken.   

It begs the question, really, when to let go of that which is broken.  Things are easy – fix it or throw it away, I guess.  But what about hearts that are broken?  What about the people who have been broken through disease, addiction, toxic relationships?  Or the children who have been broken through abuse, neglect, bullying?   Broken people are not disposable, are they? 

And so, I would say to you, if you notice that there is a broken someone in your world, don’t turn your head, maybe I should say don’t turn your heart, and look away.  Because we can always replace a coffee cup, we can always fix a door.  But the broken people in our lives, they need us.  And I suspect we need them; to learn compassion, to learn love, to learn....