The Broken Dish - Marnie Pohlmann

SETTING:

The kitchen.  By the sink dirty dishes are piled.

            

ENTER FROM STAGE LEFT:

Mary, a frazzled looking housewife and mom wearing a stained apron and slippers. She runs water, adds "SonLight Suds" and begins to wash the dishes.

Mary’s monologue:    

Lord, it is not fair! 

They all live here, too.  It's not like I sit around all day just waiting to clean up after them.  I took those courses at the college and work every afternoon at the daycare to help with the finances.   I carpool Jimmy and his friends to hockey practice.  And I'm the secretary of the PTA.  I'm even a Pioneer Club leader.  And I try to bake and sew.  I even help Joe untangle his fishing tackle so he can get away and relax.  But what about me? Probably when I'm old and decrepit I'll still be the slave.

I don't feel like anything I do matters, Lord.  It all just gets undone again. 

I make the beds so they can be slept in.

I wash and mend the clothes so they can be worn - and worn out. 

I vacuum the carpet so everyone can track in new dirt.

I cook meals so five minutes later they can complain about being hungry.

And I wash dishes so they can be dirtied again. 

Oh, Lord, do I HAVE to do dishes?

Well, ok.  If I hurry I might have time to read the Bible and You’ll make me feel better.

Oh, look, God.  This old plate again.  It's always SO dirty, but it has always been one of my favourites.  At least it is getting easier to clean.  It isn't as stained as it used to be.  Must have something to do with that new soap I'm using - SONLIGHT SUDS.  And look, you can hardly see where it had broken, and we glued it back together.  I'll let it soak while I do the other dishes.

God, that old plate is kind of like me, isn't it?  I used to be a real mess - I guess sometimes I still am.

I was shattered and stained with anger and pain.  But You glued me back together.  I was such a wreck. I sure did not act or look very lovable.  But You loved me anyway.

You wash me with the blood of your own Son, Jesus Christ.  You bring out a shine in me that I didn't know was possible.  When I look at my life now, I see the reflection of Your protection and love. You've washed away the stain of anger.  The pain is still there, sometimes.  But it sure fades fast when I look to You for comfort.  Because You understand.

Lord, You know that I really do love my family.  And I know that they really do love me.  Help me remember that no matter what I'm doing, if I do it WITH You, and to glorify You, it doesn't matter WHAT it is I am doing.  Even if it's the dishes.

Here's that plate, Lord.  Doesn't it look beautiful?  It's amazing the change a little time in SONLIGHT makes in dishes - and in me. God, you are so GOOD to me!  My heart and my attitude are much softer, now - not to mention my hands!

I’ll leave those clean dishes there to dry. You take care of that, too. Thanks for helping with the dishes.  We’ll do it again tomorrow.

MARY EXITS STAGE LEFT.

There is a certain beauty in broken pieces. Sometimes they can be glued together to make the original useful again, and sometimes they are matched with other broken pieces to create stained glass beauty.

As we try to write in our cracks of time between the rest of life, God is at work creating in us the clean heart He desires that we give to Him. This is not always done with a pen in our hands. He writes His love in us even while we do the dishes.

Truly, if it were not for the cracks in my life, I would probably have nothing to write about in those small cracks of time! 

Sometimes those cracks of time when I should or could be writing, seem like deep dark chasms of time, not just stolen moments. And I am not well-disciplined at being productive in even those longer times. In hindsight, I realize I can be writing so much more. In time, in God’s time, He will mend those huge cracks in my life so they are beautiful - picture the Grand Canyon! 

As we spend time in the sunlight this summer - and in the Son’s light - may we each find cracks of time to write and to see God’s beauty mending our own unique brokenness.

Photos courtesy of CCO license, Pixabay.com

Marnie Pohlmann is grateful for both cracks of time and cracks in her life - one provides an opportunity to write, and the other provides topics to write about. There is beauty in the cracks when God's light shines through.
Phosphorescent

Snatching the Snippets by Joylene M Bailey

Image by Jan Vašek from Pixabay 

Some experts say if you’re not writing, then you’re not writing. Meaning, I suppose, that if you’re not “bum in the saddle”, sitting-down-at-your-keyboard writing, then you can’t claim to be writing. Because nothing is getting down on the page.

Please excuse me as I disagree.

The cracks of time most beneficial to my writing are those moments when scenes are seared into my memory – a snapshot of everyday life unobserved by everyone but me.

The slant of the morning sun as it caresses the apple blossoms, how the barista’s head tips just so, the three-year-old in the bank who starts crying when his dad folds a crisp ten-dollar bill. “You bent it!”

These enchanting pictures get captured in a notebook or scribbled on serviettes and scraps of paper. And if nothing like that is handy, they are safely settled in my memory in a file marked “For Use Later”.

Writing not only happens at the keyboard.

Even Agatha Christie was known to mumble through possible dialogues for her stories as she walked the lanes of her village, ignoring the reality around her while she worked out her characters in her mind’s eye.

My own sit-down-at-the-keyboard writing requires great gorges and gulches of made-time, not found-time. This is where the snatched snippets I've collected in all those cracks trickle - or pour - onto the page, to enhance and illuminate bigger projects.

Image by Free-Photos from Pixabay 

Sometimes, making chasms and crevasses of time is difficult. But the cracks are full of possibility and fun. It's just a matter of snatching the snippets.

~~~~~

One of Joy's favourite parts of writing might be those cracks of time. The ones where she observes captivating moments around her that eventually make it into her writing. 

During this season, most of her writing projects have been put on hold as she contributes to Creating Community in Isolation with her Tea Time blog posts at Scraps of Joy.

WRITING IN THE CRACKS OF TIME by Bob Jones

Are you struggling to find time to write? There may be more time than you know what to do with in the time that falls between the cracks.

Here are five strategic ways to find 72 minutes a day, everyday, for writing.

1. The last twelve minutes before you go to bed must be seeded. Those 720 seconds are prime time to prepare for your next day’s writing. Ready your writing space for the next morning. Tablet. Pen. Computer. Chair. No clutter. Spend the other ten minutes thinking about one thing you want to write about in the morning. The subconscious mind is a ready writer. Your last prevailing thought will simmer during the night. You can get a peaceful sleep and a jumpstart on your day.

2. The first 30 minutes when you awaken must be guarded. I find cracks of time at the crack of dawn. My cell phone is silenced. No one else is awake. The house is still. Being a morning person doesn’t hurt. I can count on one hand the number of mornings I’ve missed the dawn in 2020 without needing a wake-up call. Not a morning person? Set your alarm. A hot café mocha and I’m ready to go. The first 30 minutes of my day are the most productive. They must be guarded. No email. No social media. Focus.

3. Take care of business by working over time. Some time between after dinnertime and before bedtime, carve out 30 minutes of my time. Excuse yourself and go to your writing place. Hang the “Do Not Disturb” sign on the doorknob. Writing is nobody’s business but yours. Get down to business. Thirty minutes becomes sixty and then ninety and before you know it, you’re banked 350 minutes of writing after one week. Over time you will be surprised how much writing you get done.

4. Choose the time that is most convenient for everyone else in your life. This is your sacrifice of love. Married to a morning person? Write later at night so you can be with the one you love in the morning. Got kids? Write before they get up or after they go to bed. You are required to do shift work, work weekends or work more than one job? Write in the cracks of work. You may feel these choices leave you writing in weakness, but weakness is God’s favourite place to show his strength. When you make sacrifices out of love, don’t be surprised how God makes time out of your sacrifices. 

5. Never leave home without a way to redeem the time. Every week you have one or more moments of unexpected wait time. Waiting at an appointment. Waiting for a meeting to begin. Waiting because of a cancellation. Don’t fight it. Write in it. Prepare your mind to seize the opportunity in adversity.

Cracks let the light in. Are you ready?

Please take time and leave a comment below. Thank you.