Beauty and Brokenness
Let me begin with the promise I won’t tell you there is beauty IN the brokenness… that makes me want to throat punch someone when I hear it. Something about that statement seems to invalidate very real pain & anguish and can really feel shameful to us non-Pollyannas. Now that that’s out of the way…
I do think it’s hard to see the beauty that can come FROM the brokenness, especially when you’re in the midst of it. I’d like to share with you something that’s been happening in my home (and my heart) for a while now.
I must confess I have a black thumb. The only plants I can keep alive are succulents, but even those need to be the toughest of the tough, and must tolerate months of drought and/or the occasional water boarding. I bought 5 house plants last weekend, 2 are on their very last legs… I’m currently nursing them back to life as best as I know how.
I own one very special orchid that I received as a gift in 2018 for serving a group of women. It comes and goes often, and I give it my normal level of plant neglect, but it continues to bless me with flowers. Well, early in January I was excited to see the blooms coming back! However, in my eagerness to ‘prop them up’ I snapped the stem (node). UGHHH!!! I just put it back on the window sill and waited for it to die.
Well, wouldn’t you know, 10 days later and it was still blooming! The stem looked even worse, though. It looked as if the plant was trying to insulate the damage. I left things alone, and hoped the healing and growth would continue, but was actually expecting this flower to be the final hoorah.
Finally, here we are today! The stem is literally hanging on by a very, very small green lifeline, but the beauty continues. It is thriving, despite what happened to it. I’m no longer anticipating the worst, I’m hopeful and excited for the growth to come.
I thought about waiting for the final buds to bloom before making this post, but I don’t know that I want to send the message that beauty only comes with completeness. Beauty is in the PROCESS of growing and healing. Beauty can come FROM brokenness, DESPITE brokenness, sometimes even BECAUSE of brokenness.
If you are feeling broken, if you have been scarred, I wish you HOPE. I wish you GROWTH. I wish you BEAUTY.
As always, if you want to share any brokenness, please share your secrets with me here.
And if you don’t already know… you ARE a gray duck!
