The Broken Pot Story

aka, The Squirrel in the Garden with a Bird Feeder

Life Lessons Series

Each morning, I spend some time in my garden. Sometimes, it’s just to water the garden. Sometimes, it’s to work on pulling weeds, and planting new plants. Sometimes, it’s just to wander through the yard and gardens checking in on the growth. Regardless of the reason, there’s rarely a morning that I am not outside in the garden.

I’ve been working on building out a hummingbird, butterfly and bee friendly garden for about three years now. Every day, I am in awe of the “I had this idea…and it’s coming together!”

Our home office window faces the side garden and years ago, I put a window bird feeder there. It’s held up by three suction cups. Strong enough for birds – even the bigger bluejays and woodpeckers. It’s supposedly high enough off the ground that the squirrels can’t get in it – that was, until we acquired a rain barrel and although we thought we placed it far enough away from the window, apparently, we did not.

The squirrel hopped up on the rain barrel, jumped over to the windowsill and shimmied up into the feeder! (I didn’t see this happen, but I’m pretty sure this is how it was done.)

Here’s the squirrel living his/her best life in a feeder of sunflower seeds!

There’s a lesson in persistence here and figuring out a strategy to get what you want, but that’s a lesson for another day. The squirrel plays an important part of The Broken Pot Story.

I had four terra cotta/clay pots that were empty and sitting on the ground underneath the feeder. One day, my neighbor texted me and said she saw three squirrels trying to get into the feeder and my reply was, “Well, I guess they’ll learn a lesson when the feeder falls off the window.”
And that’s exactly what happened – no one saw it happen, but I found the feeder, its contents and the broken pot during one of my morning rounds.

It was The Squirrel in the Garden with the Bird Feeder!

At first, I laughed about it. Then, I was sad about the broken pot.
Eh, maybe sad isn’t the right word – I mean, it’s a pot. But I’ll use sad because it was a good pot that I had acquired at a yard sale. I’m of the generation that says, “that’s a good box”, you know – and I save things. I also fix what can be fixed instead of buying new all the time.
So, I gathered up the pieces of the pot, determined that they were large enough that I could glue that pot back together.

Life Lesson: If something is broken, first determine if it can be fixed.

First, I had to wash all the pieces, paying particular attention to the edges because if the edges aren’t clean, the glue won’t adhere properly.

Next, I had to figure out what I was going to use to glue the pot back together – determined to only use what I already had at the house. I had silicone sealant leftover from my aquarium repair project and I had painters’ tape (my favorite multipurpose tape!)
After figuring out the order in which the pieces needed to be glued back together, I applied the silicone sealant, using QTips to smooth it out initially, but then I just used my finger. It was easier and the sealant is the kind that doesn’t stick like a superglue would.

Yes, I know that piece is upside down, I had to glue the smaller piece to the larger piece first. In retrospect, it would have been easier to glue the smaller piece into the remaining part of the pot first, I could have gotten all the pieces glued in faster that way. It takes a while for the silicone to set up enough to keep the pieces in place. I had to use extra painters’ tape to hold everything together.

Life Lesson: Broken things can be fixed, there’s more than one way to do it. (Usually, the easiest way is the best way!)

I continued working with the pieces, applying silicone sealant to the edges and placing the pieces together like a puzzle until the pot was put back together. I applied painters’ tape when needed to help hold the pieces together until the adhesive set up.

At some point, I decided that the seams needed a little “extra” to make sure the pot stayed together so I added some Tub/Tile caulk (leftover from another project) to each seam. It went on white, which was fine, I thought – the white seams add character! It reminded me of the story of the gold being used to fix cracks in pottery.
I was surprised to see that it dries clear! Even better!!

All the pieces fit right back together and with the silicone sealant and the tube and tile caulk, I feel like it will once again serve its original purpose!
It’s not “good as new” but it’s good enough.

Life Lesson: Broken things can be fixed. They will not be “good as new”, but they will be good enough.

There’s a lesson in patience here, too because I have to wait for the silicone and caulk to completely dry and cure.

Once that’s done, I’ll add two zip ties to help hold it together and some spray paint. Then, it will be returned to its original purpose – to hold soil and plants – and returned to its rightful space in the garden.

I tend to use a lot of everyday circumstances to demonstrate the opportunity to learn life lessons. Some of my greatest lessons so far have been through my practice of gardening.

This story is no different – the broken pot represents anything in our lives that’s broken:
Physical, Mental, Spiritual brokenness
Relationship brokenness
Workplace brokenness.

Is there something in your life that’s broken?
How can you apply the lessons of The Broken Pot Story to that situation?

Life Lesson: If something is broken, first determine if it can be fixed.

Life Lesson: Broken things can be fixed, there’s more than one way to do it. (Usually, the easiest way is the best way!)

Life Lesson: Broken things can be fixed. They will not be “good as new”, but they will be good enough.

The most important lesson here is that just because something is broken, it does not mean it should automatically be discarded. There are a variety of ways and tools (like I used the silicone, tape and caulk) to put something back together.

Whatever is broken, the first consideration should be to fix it.

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