Have you ever met someone whose greatest motivation comes from someone telling them that they can’t do something?  If you have, then you’re familiar with Emma.  Emma is my firecracker, she’s my wild card.  Despite the fact that her father was working closely with the Union, until her entire family is killed by a rogue Confederate officer, she ultimately aligns herself and begins spying for the Confederacy.  She is rash and quick to act.  Which sometimes works out quite well for her, and sometimes it really doesn’t!  Regardless, she adapts, she bounces back.

There is really something achingly beautiful about watching someone that no matter what you throw at them, they come back for more.  They take what they’re given, learn from it, grow from it and become better for the lesson.  Sometimes it takes a couple of rounds before the lesson is learned, but they keep coming back for more.  From the outside it can be painful to watch as someone takes beating after beating after beating, but it’s not up to us to ease their way.  They’re too stubborn.  They have to learn on their own, even if it means constantly repairing the breaks until they resemble a stained glass window.

I love stained glass windows.  Where else can you find something that is considered gorgeous, breathtaking art work, composed entirely of broken pieces welded together?  If those same mosaics were instead painted, or constructed from a solid pane of glass, some of the beauty would be lost because the beauty lies in the breaks.  It is prettier broken.  I feel like people are the same.  Each fall, each hurt is a story and that tell-tale scar is our body’s way of proclaiming to the world that we got back up and kept moving.  We kept living, and we like the windows are prettier broken.

Emma falls down and breaks a lot.  But she gets back up.