Broken Things - by: Jane Kifer

The object BROKE, the metaphor is HUGE. Whenever I accidentally break a cup or something, I always try to back track and see exactly what I was thinking about at that time. It's usually pretty interesting to say the least. I have hung on to very special pottery for most of my adult life, that a very special, grandmother like person made. I hung on to every inch of it in an effort to hang on to every inch of her. Even if it was cracked and leaking, even if it was chipped. I needed to. She was my safety as a child. She saved me, she was the one who was there! IT was the least I could do! She was so very special. I needed to cling (because that is the word I choose to use, it clearly has other connotations...) to any connection I had left to her that I could maintain now that she died - she died 21 years ago! It occurred to me through studying Feng Shui, that this was not healthy. As much as I love and loved her as much as she helped form me and I value her, I am literally clinging to the broken parts. Not the alive, vibrant parts of her. I needed to let it go. I took a photo of it, which used to work for me, but even that, I see now, is clinging to some of the broken pieces. I will delete them, but this was a helpful way for me to transition into giving things away, it was a start. I can let these these special shards of pottery go when I put them in the green bin to go back into the earth. When I recently let go of about 6 items of hers, I laughed out loud and suddenly realized she was laughing at me for keeping all that broken stuff for all those years. If she were alive, and I can hear in the alive part of her spirit now, she would have smashed them to the ground and said, "LET GO JANE, they are broken, why do you want these?!" Once when I was making jewelry with a German steel tool, I was pondering something about my intention around a certain area in my divorce. I was wondering if in setting certain boundaries, I was being rude and mean and if I was looking at all the parts. As I twisted the wire around the beads in the necklace I was making, all of the sudden, the German steel unbreakable- last 20 years tool, snapped off! Flew across the room and shot straight into the wall! I sat there, slightly frozen and looked up where it flew and hit and thought, "Oh shit." I was still. I thought, "Oh my god, I am really glad that didn't hit my eye. That would have sucked." Then it metaphorically hit me! Poof! What? Do I need to be hit in the head to "see" it?!?!?!? and make it clear for me? That thought I was having when it all went down, suddenly became VERY clear, and I stopped second guessing myself based on fears. All of those broken things we hold on to: intending to fix, intending to glue, intending to make into art, intending to take to repair, intending to give to someone who could easily fix it. GET RID OF IT! You are literally hanging on to the broken parts. Let them go. Perhaps look at it as if the "thing" is telling you it's time and purpose are OVER, say thank you very much and move on!