The Other Side

I got this bracelet in the mail today, and there's a funny synchronicity to it for me. There's a lady who sells jewelry and I got a necklace from her the very first time I was in NYC. I got that necklace as a reminder of what it was I could accomplish if only I believed. So when she was having a sale, I looked at her website and found a bracelet that was interesting, except that she'd already sold it. She offered to make me one like it, and sent me pictures of turquoise stones. I could select one for the centerpiece of the bracelet.

There was one that attracted me most in the photos. Photos are a funny thing, they only show you one side to things. So when I received the bracelet today, I saw that the stone I selected was there, but there was another side to the piece, and on that other side, another turquoise, with a visible crack dividing it that someone had repaired, putting the two pieces back together.

There was a time, my perfectionistic era, that I would not have worn something broken, thinking that somehow it's brokenness might rub off on me and then I might be broken, too.

Prior to receiving it and seeing this, I'd been mulling on the idea that in life, when we have our brokenness, we can't often see the other side to things. Like the full moon tonight, we have only illuminated before us one side. It's clearly visible and some say it makes us crazy, this full moon. But I appreciate it simply for reminding me that the circle in the night sky is actually a sphere. Even in seeing it's full circle face, I know that there is another side that I cannot see from my perspective.

So getting the bracelet today, with the two sided turquoise stones, I am reminded that the brokenness of one side does not discount the fact that there is another side to this that is whole and complete. We sometimes focus our attention so exclusively on the brokenness that we neglect to consider the other side of it.

And when I flip the stone to reveal the stone with it's alluring wholeness, I need to honor the side not seen, but important nonetheless. It's in our brokenness that we are made whole and complete, for without it we would fail to recognize what wholeness could be.

How is it that we overlook the beauty of brokenness? I am struck by the fact that the craftsperson who made the two sided piece took the time and care to lovingly put the pieces back together. In truth, what the stone was before it broke was beautiful in it's depth of color. Did the person realize this and honor it's beauty beyond the fractured state? It takes an artist's eye to see the beauty in the flaws.

We all have them, these flaws and broken moments. I've yet to meet a person who's had none. It's what we do with these that matters. Do we eschew them, cast them away from us? Or do we give ourselves the loving care to piece a life back together? Can we see beyond the imperfection in order to see the grace and beauty that exists and willfully and mindfully restore ourselves to whole?

I love this bracelet, as it serves as a reminder of what was and is, and how there is another side to this, like the moon, that I have to believe exists without actually seeing it.