I now have the perfect coffee cup!

This morning, for no reason at all, our black cat (the mischievous one) walked by my coffee on the counter, looked at it, tilted his head back and forth, and then proceeded to “help it get over it’s fear of heights.”

Although I was initially shocked and saddened by the sheer audacity, I was equally stunned by what I saw laying in the midst of coffee grounds, ground cinnamon, ground cloves, ground allspice & ground ginger (see what I did there with all the “ground” stuff? All true btw).

There, in the middle of all these small broken shards of the mug, was this part of the mug.

And, it occurred to me as I was throwing everything away that this piece, right here, must stay.

Why?

It made me smile.

The “RAD DAD” part is still intact even though it’s not as complete as it once was.

I feel like this, regularly, as I often feel broken, but keep going.

Broken?

Sure. As a parent. As a friend. As a spouse. As an Athlete. As a dreamer. As a human.

What I once felt about myself versus where I am now I’d appropriately describe as broken, but still whole.

Just a different version of me. Stronger. More resilient. More focused. Less room for nonsense.

Aren’t we all though?

Our lives, as humans, are regularly shattered (sickness, death, loss of friends, moving, changing jobs, disappointments, accidents, natural disasters, bad investments, broken bones, kids growing up, lapses in judgment, etc), but we have to get back up and keep going.

And sure, there are tons of religious spins you could put on this, but for now, it’s just one of those neat moments of connection for me.

So, now, I have this brokenness standing up, shining in the light, on top of my dresser in my room where I will see it daily.

It’ll be by reminder to get up and be a “RAD DAD” no matter how broken I feel.

If I start each day with that, it will kick off every other part of my day. And maybe I’ll be reminded that each of us have unique stories of brokenness and we’re all doing our best to keep it all together.

And, to my kids, and Joanna, please don’t throw this piece away.