Thursday, September 10, 2009

Picking up the Pieces, but things are never the same again

I spent a couple hours picking up the pieces of an accident that happened in front of the Church yesterday. Broken glass, plastic, emblems, engine parts.

A couple large buckets worth. There will be work to return it to a semblance of normality. Oil is spilled. Gouges in the ground. And there is a broken sign and a fallen traffic light.

It seems like there is always a right time to pick up the pieces after a catastrophe. Keeping them and trying to use them again is nearly always a lost cause.

This happens in life. I have friends who are in financial difficulty. Serious difficulty. I am helping them think thru the situation. There will be a crash. There will be debris. Picking up the pieces after won't make it like it was. Life will change.

The same is with our economy in the USA. There will never be a time when it will be like it was. Maybe worse in some ways if your perspective is backward looking, and in less tangible ways, much better.

In marriages, when difficulty hits as it almost always does there will be pain and a time when picking up the pieces will be needed. Start again.

Years from now after there will be small remembrances. Like at the Church. A shard of broken glass. An oil stain. Skid marks. Broken signposts.

Little reminders. Indicators that once a long time ago it was different.

I think sometimes it's best to take the pieces we find, toss them out and start building new.

It won't necessarily be better, just different. And, in the end, that's going to be OK.

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