My friend Bridgette runs a non-profit organization that helps homeless mothers. One of the things her organization does for them is to provide free art classes. One day someone donated a bunch of buttons to the organization and Bridgette decided to have the mothers make collage art using the buttons.
Most of the mothers arranged the various colors, textures, and sizes of the buttons on the paper to make pictures. But one mother chose to put the buttons in a straight line, from small to large. Bridgette asked her about it. “It’s me.” she said, “I started small, without understanding or strength. But as I learned, I grew. Not only bigger, but stronger. See the broken button in the middle? That was a really hard time I went through. But with hard work and believing in myself, I got past it, and I am still getting bigger.”
How very hard it can be to get through those broken button times in our lives. They strip us down to one of two choices: either succumb or get bigger. Either become a victim, or rise above. Our broken button times are agonizing. They seem without end. They are unfair. They test every bit of strength we have. They should have happened to someone else. They were not on our radar screen.
When our buttons break, what do we do? We cry. We mourn. We agonize over the “what if’s”. We realize we are not in charge. We allow ourselves time to go through the sadness and pain. And then we grab our glue and paste a whole, bigger button in the next spot. We have to. But where do we get that next button? It just arrives. Every day that we live, we learn. Every day that we learn, we grow bigger. Our buttons are like scout badges, awarded for the bravery of enduring life. Like it or not, our buttons just keep coming.
Eventually we are able to look back at all of our buttons from the perspective of one who has risen above and gotten bigger. One who has worked hard and gotten stronger. And we will look at our broken button times with appreciation. We will realize that, without them, we would have no character and strength. We will realize that, without them, our progress would be linear and sterile. We will realize that, without them, our collage would never have been nearly as beautiful.