A Lesson From A Cup

Tags

blogging101, Creative Writing, Journaling, Reflections, Writing 101

So! I’m working my way through this journal called The Castle of the Pearl by Christopher Biffle. It helps you sort through your life and find out what the Great Pearl of wisdom is for your life. As I’ve been writing, I’ve felt strongly there are two phrases I needed to keep in mind this time through. Both came to me at the same time. The first was Just Breathe (which Plato at Plato’s Groove has often said to me when I’m having a conniption about something) and the second was Embrace Imperfection.

Wanting to keep those catch phrases at the forefront of my mind, then, and since I tend to drink a lot of tea while working in my journal, I ordered myself two new coffee mugs from Zazzle.com. I was very excited. It just felt right! I designed the dragonfly mug. 😀

But then, after I had placed the order, The Frothy Filosopher, Derek Lee, suggested I should have spelled Imperfection wrong. My heart kind of sank because I thought that would have been really cool and illustrated exactly what I was trying to absorb. I called Zazzle to see if I could change the order if they hadn’t started on it already, but I was too late. I was a little disappointed, but sometimes that’s just the way things work out.

They finally came today. They were each wrapped in YARDS of bubble wrap. I freed my Just Breathe mug first. Was pleased that the blue color I chose for the inside matched so well. Then I undid the tape and started to unroll the dragonfly mug. That bloomin’ mug slipped out of my hand just as slick as snot on a door nob (as my old gaffer used to say — I mean my dad 😀 ), and I dropped it. Sigh… My heart broke. You can’t see it well in the picture, but the crack goes clear down the side.

I was a bit teary and called his lordship to cry on his shoulder. Being the practical man that he is, he said, “Just order another one.” 😮 I thought, “Well ok then!” and happily got back on Zazzle to order another mug. This time, however, I DID deliberately misspell Imperfecton, and I made the font size a wee bit smaller.

The odd thing was, I had a $10 off coupon, but when it added my order up at the end when I hit submit, it didn’t take it off. I ended up calling Zazzle and the young man who answered the phone was none other that an actual, bloomin’ Irishman! (For those of you who don’t know me, I am TOTALLY smitten with Ireland and will be visiting there next year. It is the ONLY thing on my bucket list!) Well I can tell you that was the biggest treat of my day! And how very Serendipitous was that! 😀

So in the end I went to throw the broken cup in the wastebasket — but I couldn’t bring myself to do it. Even in its imperfection I couldn’t throw it out. It was perfectly imperfect! This is what I did instead…

I’m sitting here smiling because I had asked Plato earlier today what his definition of play was. As I was typing this I got his answer: “Play is gaining a new pencil pen holder. 🙂 ” 😀

It just proves what part of this journaling experience is all about for me, that even Imperfect things have their place in this world and can be loved. What a wonderful lesson to learn from a broken cup.

So now I’m excited to see what other lessons God has in store during the months it will take to complete my stay at the Castle. I think it would take something pretty cool to top this one, though.

PS. Percy says hello. 😀

 

 

 

 

Photo Credits:
Girl — nomadicalsabbatical.com
All others — personal