Broken Mug

I broke my favorite coffee mug this morning.

I tripped on a cord (I think, it all happened so fast). I dropped the mug on the pavement outside of the garage. It shattered into large chunky pieces.

Being a dad makes me have to think through how to instruct children through the processes that I never think about any more. What do you do when you get mad or angry? What do you do when you get frustrated?

Parenting is a mid life check on all of the things that you have relegated to auto pilot.

I know better than to attach myself with too much sentiment, I am naturally too sentimental so I think I’ve—not too unhealthily—learned how to just move on. But this time I felt that frustration and loss and decided to lean into it. What would I tell my kids?

I would tell them to let the feelings come like waves.

I would tell them to take the moment to be thankful for the good things that are now gone, remember that sadness and grief only come because there was something that you treasured.

I would tell them to take stock in what it was that was treasured, remember this and let it guide you in how you live.

I would tell them that after they have felt those feelings I would ask myself what I could have done differently to fix (if this is applicable).

I did these things and I think I maybe have felt tears welling in a small way, because I have had that mug for awhile. The blend of antique, blue underpaint with a green over coat really did make me feel better than a drab mug. I will be fine without that mug but that mug gave me just a little bit of grace every day. I will miss it to the fullest that one should miss a coffee mug, no more no less.

I threw the pieces away, because I am disposed to be overly sentimental and keep too many things. And when I learn lessons from this morning I keep too many things in the wrong places and then I trip on them and break the other things, which makes the lesson I learned an ironic or maybe poetic one. I might go back to the dumpster and grab the handle from the trash and hang it, hang it to remind me that I need to get my shit together.