Cracked Beauty - the Epilogue

I realize that this bowl is too big for my hands to hold …

in its beauty

in its brokenness

in its unfinishedness…

in its usefulness…

I need bigger – much bigger - hands to support my trembling fingers...

Trembling with awe…

Trembling with pain…

Trembling with the exhaustion of the long journey…

I need a place where I can set down the bowl…

… and rest…

just as I need a place to set down my head… and rest…

… to set down my heart and rest…

The owner’s sky-blue eyes wait kindly, the bowl in his hands where it had started, long time ago, spinning on his wheel soft and pliable...

I swipe the credit card and sign my name on the electronic pad.  He smiles as he hands me the beauty.

,

All yours now. You chose well…

I shake my head.

All mine… and it’s not. I chose it… and yet I did not.

I walk out of the studio into the blinding sun, the bowl in my arms…I know it’s not mine to hold it alone…

Mom! What took you sooooo LONG??? We’ve been waiting here F-O-R-E-V-E-R.

Maybe more like five minutes, I have to correct.  I am a mom. I just picked up a piece of pottery from the clearance table…Whatcha' think? Like it?

Cool.  Can we stop by Kentucky Fried Chicken on the way home? We are starving...

For thus the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel, has said,“In repentance and rest you will be saved, in quietness and trust is your strength.” Isaiah 30:15

He says, “Be still, and know that I am God" Psalm 46:10