Reassembly Required

Have you ever tried to construct

a complicated gift – a child’s toy

that comes in a box,

broken down into dozens

of different pieces;

a piece of furniture

that comes the same way;

or some other device

or gadget that arrives

labeled “assembly required”?

Sometimes the directions

aren’t quite clear, and seem

as if they have been translated

from another language,

either by a woefully inadequate

online tool or someone

whose bilinguality has been validated

by little more than the purchase

of Rosetta Stone discs.

Other times, there seem to be

pieces broken in transit,

or altogether missing,

making it nearly impossible

to construct anything

that resembles the original

product’s description and function.

Have you ever stopped to consider

how your life could be

described in this same way?

The harder we try to glue,

bolt, and otherwise connect

the fragmented pieces of our lives,

forcing them to function like

and resemble a picture

we were shown in the past

or someone else imagined for our future,

the more frustrated, hopeless,

and dysfunctional we become.

What would happen if we freed

ourselves and our expectations

from instructions and components

demanding perfect function and understanding,

focusing instead, on reconstructing

our broken pieces into vessels capable

of holding those around us

in the present moment

beneath grace’s flow?

Photo by Todd Jenkins

© 2014 Todd Jenkins