i have had this mug for as long as i can remember. it may have been my mother’s from her childhood. we may have “borrowed” it from a rented shore house. the details of the mug’s origins are fuzzy. what i do know is i always have loved this mug. so much so that instead of tucking it away in a cabinet, for the last decade or so it has been used to house pens on my various desks and tabletops. the mug’s most recent home was on our small homeschool bookcase in our living room. yesterday, janet was having a moment of being fresh. she didn’t want to stop whatever she was doing to work on her handwriting lesson. so she grabbed her book and when she angrily went to pull a pencil from the mug, she accidently knocked it to the floor and it shattered. she froze. i froze. i knew it was an accident. but i also knew it happened because she was being fresh and acting out in annoyance. a wave of anger washed over me. i was tired. upset. frustrated janet was giving me a hard time about her school work. but i checked myself. knew i couldn’t counter my daughter’s angry mistake with my own angry mistake. so i calmly picked up the pencils, the pieces of the mug i could salvage, and grabbed the super glue. the mug isn’t the same. but i think now i may love it even more. the chipped but not fully broken mug will serve as a reminder that i am better than i was yesterday. that i can breathe through tough moments. i am very far from a perfect parent. i struggle with my patience many times every day. but i am working on it. and i am getting better. bit by broken mug.
