From time to time we all feel broken. It happens and, while we may keep a shiny smile on the outside, it feels like we are held together with a veneer of tape, string and chewing gum. Broken is not useless, it is not forever and it is not always a bad thing.
On the farm things that are broken are reused, repurposed and reinvented as something new, useful and potentially better than what they were when they started. Take this little pitcher for example. I found it at a country market in the bargain bin. It’s a pattern called Willow, a common china pattern made in the mid 1800s in England.
From a distance it looks whole, elegantly crafted and ready to be used. When you get closer you see that it is cracked, chipped and broken in many places. Time and use have made it delicate. You might say that it’s broken. If you look again, there more to the story. Someone loved this object so much, treasured it even, that they mended it over and over again.
Tiny staples have been inserted into carefully made holes in the porcelain hold together the lip and the shattered handle. The staples have been coloured blue to match the prevalent pattern. Other parts have been glued together, separated shards fit back together so well that the cracks almost disappear. The once broken pitcher was so loved that it survives, transformed into an object that says, ‘Yes, I am broken but I live on. I have a story. I’ve earned my scars. I am beautiful.’
Our farm is filled with broken things of beauty and use like these jugs that stand proudly next to a pump and a well that no longer pull water. They stand to remind us of the heritage of the land and the hands that lived, loved and played at our heritage farm.
Mismatched plates that are one of a kind because the rest of their original set have been lost, fit together.
This chopping block that, without its rounded edge, fits perfectly next to the coffee maker and is used every day to settle the grounds in the coffee basket before making the morning’s coffee.
A chipped bowl that is an absolute favourite for the cat’s supper.
A lock, frozen by time and exposure found in a pile of old bricks becomes a treasure and its finder an adventurer.
These hooks, once used by a butcher to hang meat, now hold the door of our shed closed guarding our store of firewood from the elements.
This bolt that has long lost its washer and nut has been reinvented and bent into a hook to latch a gate.
Car tires that are no longer suitable for the road, become the base for a fence.
And these, pieces of things that belonged to another person’s story picked out of the soil, a reminder that we are but a moment in the story of this lovely old place. This collection grows and one day, when there are enough parts, will become something beautiful that will live on as a mosaic.
On the farm broken things are saved, treasured as they fill gaps and fix problems. If they’re lucky, broken things are turned into art to make the world beautiful and them whole again.