Wertschätzend

Last week as I was unloading the dishwasher, I hit a bowl my then-five-year-old son made against another bowl, and the rim was chipped in a bad way. I felt terrible; that was the one piece he made in class which is really nice and he eats cereal out of it often. The next day I chipped the rim of a cherished mug from a German company which I only use occasionally because I love it so much. It was a small chip, but those little things bother me. Still, I thought I could continue to use it. The next day, as I was washing lettuce I looked down and inexplicably, that same mug, still holding remnants of my coffee, was standing upright on the floor next to the dishwasher, a splatter of coffee next to it, and a large chip missing from the other side of the rim. I was really disturbed. When I am careless, especially with pottery (I have always loved and collected and also used to make it), I feel like it means something - deep. I don’t know what. Foreboding? Past-boding? Sins of thoughtlessness being punished? A sign I am moving too quickly and maybe carelessly causing harm in other ways too? But the same cup seeming to jump onto the floor and break itself the day after I mis-handled it? Wait, I thought, this means something else. It means “let it go”. It doesn’t mean I’m doing something wrong, it means wanting to preserve things the way they were is not going to work. It only causes more pain.

I haven’t broken any more ceramics in the past 5 days, so maybe the universe believes I got the message.

These words from my best friend in Göttingen, Germany this weekend have stayed with me, reminding me of something to be hopeful about: “Here a different world is beginning… since today all shops are closed and all people should stay at home or with 2 meters to each other. All feels so unreal and from day to day the virus seems more dangerous. Nobody really knows what will happen, we live from day to day […] I’m quite calm and trustful […] I think it all means that humanity cannot go on like we did. Nobody wanted to change. Now we are forced and perhaps we have a chance to change deeply. Vor allem to become loving again with us people, nature, and the universe, demütig und respektvoll, und wertschätzend.”

What good can come of this? What do you think?