Sunday, March 4, 2012

Beauty From Broken Pieces

In just a moment, lives were changed, priorities were changed, beliefs were changed.  Change.  Broken pieces.
On Friday, March 2nd, teachers and students in Henryville, Indiana were using every last instructional minute to prepare for the upcoming, highly pressured state-wide I-STEP tests.  By the end of the day?  Change.  Broken pieces.  As tornadoes charged through this small town, homes were destroyed, schools damaged, buses and cars tossed about and twisted, and lives were lost.  Broken pieces.  Broken hearts.  Broken dreams.
But yet, a small child was found alone in a field, now an orphan. Her family was killed. In my safe little house far from this insanity, I see her as a picture of beauty from broken pieces.  The hope for this brave community.
Tomorrow, I will invite my kindergarten students to stay in a recess and help me peel the  paper off of all of our "broken pieces" of crayons.  We will melt the colors together into beautiful little crayon chunks.  We will send pictures to the elementary school along with the crayons, so that the children can make "beauty from broken pieces."  Join us?

5 comments:

  1. Thank you for sharing this story. I love your repetition as it sank in the devestation that happened. Beauty of one child saved - thanks for modeling how to find the good in the bad.

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  2. It takes a disaster to stop and take stock of what we have and then think how can we help those who need it. I loved the structure of this writing that you produced.

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  3. Great post. I hope many of your kindergartners feel led to help with your wonderful project at recess.

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  4. Beautiful idea. How sad to hear this afternoon that the little one has died, an entire family gone. So many will be struggling with so much grief. Gifts from the heart such as yours will help give hope.

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    1. I heard the news this morning of the loss of Angel. I can only imagine the sadness hanging over this community. Thanks, DQ

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