Brocante Bits: Danced into Dust

 

…Brocante… French… Antiques…

Stories collected while living in France…

 

Spode coffee cup 1800s

 

1800s Spode Demi-Tasse

Found at the Avignon International Fair over fifteen years ago.

Setting for eight.

Plates, saucers, demi tasses, teacups, creamer and sugar bowl to match.

Less than hundred dollars for the lot.

While carrying a tray with the demi-tasses back to the cupboard I tripped.

Five demi tasses danced to dust.

We hold people, places, things which in time became part of who we are. They tell stories, memories, feelings… they gather history as we love and live with them. They become intertwined with our lives: Connected like dot to dot to one person thing or another, helping us recall who we are, where we have been and what we have learned. Little things, big moments, pat on the back emotion… one drop after another while filling our souls with defining moments that remind us: This is who you are.

When the demi tasses hit the floor I remembered a moment way back in time when my boyfriend died.

I was carrying a large salad bowl that someone had brought over for the funeral, I tripped with it in hand  it fell shattering to the ground. As I stooped down to pick up the broken pieces it spoke symbolically to me of my time with my boyfriend… Some pieces I could hold knowing they would always be a part of me, some pieces the ones with sharp edges I was careful to pick up the fear of being cut reminded me of his sudden death and the pain and sorrow, some pieces had no form no recognizable connection except that they were part of the bowl. I thought of those as parts of John I had yet to discover and would only hear about and hold true. And then there were the pieces shattered into shards, that became dust or maybe shining stars leading into tomorrow, pieces of a future I did not know yet knew he would not be there.

We let go, we hold on, we become who we are over time…

Some pieces are remembered, others drift away and there are shards that cannot be seen yet somehow without our knowing they light the way.

 

 

 



Comments

18 responses to “Brocante Bits: Danced into Dust”

  1. What a tender memory, Corey. I love the symbolic ties to John in the salad bowl. Sharing such thoughts and moments in time are why I love reading your blog. What a special woman you are.

  2. Thank you. xo

  3. Beautiful analogy, Corey; so easy to see the deep relationship you had as you share the story of the bowl.

  4. Thank you, Corey. You know how very much this means to me right now.

  5. Very moving. Thank you…xxoo jody/fl

  6. Janet with Eiffel

    For 3 days now we have been
    surrounded by blazing wild fires.
    Watching coverage non stop on TV
    as we wait for our evacuation orders.
    On pins and needles, the same feelings
    we experienced in 2007.
    We were spared then, only the gardens
    and fences burned.What would it be this time?
    As we waited for instructions and evacuation
    routes we watched homes burning only blocks
    from our neighborhood.
    Last night the winds changed and the amazing
    fire crews from all over the state have
    gained some control.
    We did not, in the end, need to evacuate.
    This morning we are watching people return
    to destroyed homes, looking for that one shard
    to hold on to, to cry over, to remember.

  7. Diogenes

    Hi Janet,
    I am north of you in LA. Glad to hear you are safe. Crazy weather, we had 103 degrees here yesterday.

  8. Diogenes

    Corey, nice post. This is a chance to go hunting at the brocante for new, old, black and white demitasse cups.

  9. What a beautiful story. It’s not easy to have the kind of perspective while you’re feeling such pain, but what a poignant way to accept the passage of life.

  10. Lovely – memories are all we really have in the end…

  11. So glad you didn’t fall while carrying the demi-tasse cups. Funny how that sound, the crash of the crockery, can bring back such tender moments. I wonder if someday you will hear dishes break and remember that moment when the demi-tasse cups broke.

  12. Beautiful – you have such a way with words, pictures and emotion Corey.

  13. Glad you did not fall, sorry the cups broke but lead you to share such a powerful reflection. “We let go, we hold on, we become who we are over time” – I do not even recognize myself from last year this time -the change is good. i am much better prepared for tomorrow.Thanks for putting it into words.

  14. paula s in new mexico

    Hug.

  15. Your words touch my heart.
    After many years, sweet memories have come to me
    of a love lost many years ago. So your shards of
    memories help me remember.

  16. This was such a moving post. I’m glad the broken bits in your life have been put together into such a beautiful mosaic in the South of France. I started collecting bits of Spode when my mother died. Each piece I find reminds me of our times together in post-war England. But really the pottery is only a symbol of the times we spent together.
    The comments from Southern California are heart-wrenching. I hope this too early fire season does an about face and the cool rains start to fall.

  17. Judy Bates

    I “let go” of my twin John four years ago this Monday…so your beautiful post pieced together lovely memories and poignant moments for me…much love to you, Corey, you grace us with your sharings.

  18. Achingly beautiful and bittersweet post.
    Thank you.

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