• Home
  • Memo
    • Past Memo Archives
    • Podcast (iTunes)
    • RSS Feed
  • Roy H. Williams
    • Private Consulting
    • Public Speaking
    • Pendulum_Free_PDF
    • Sundown in Muskogee
    • Destinae, the Free the Beagle trilogy
    • People Stories
    • Stuff Roy Said
      • The Other Kind of Advertising
        • Business Personality Disorder PDF Download
        • The 10 Most Common Mistakes in Marketing
          • How to Build a Bridge to Millennials_PDF
          • The Secret of Customer Loyalty and Not Having to Discount
          • Roy’s Politics
    • Steinbeck’s Unfinished Quixote
  • Wizard of Ads Partners
  • Archives
  • More…
    • Steinbeck, Quixote and Me_Cervantes Society
    • Rabbit Hole
    • American Small Business Institute
    • How to Get and Hold Attention downloadable PDF
    • Wizard Academy
    • What’s the deal with
      Don Quixote?
    • Quixote Wasn’t Crazy
      • Privacy Policy
      • Will You Donate A Penny A Wedding to Bring Joy to People in Love?

The Monday Morning Memo

Gather Up the Fragments

December 1, 2008

| Download
https://podcasts.captivate.fm/media/635ee353-064b-4c9d-a22b-660e825c2c15/MMM081201-GatherUpFragments.mp3

Chapter six in John’s story about the life of Jesus tells us how he fed 5,000 people with 5 loaves and 2 small fishes.

I have no problem reconciling God and science, so the miracle bit doesn’t stumble me in the least. The thing that fascinates me – the piece I woke up thinking about – is what Jesus said when the meal was over. “Gather up the fragments that remain, that nothing be lost.”

Consider. This was a person of unlimited resources, a man who could create abundance from nothingness, yet he said to his followers, “Gather up the fragments.”

Have you ever stopped to “gather up the fragments” of your life?

We find ourselves at Thanksgiving and Christmas confronted with life-fragments we’ve been trying hard to forget. Encounters with uncomfortable relatives bring sharp fragments to the surface. Memories of past failures and embarrassments, hard times and weird relationships emerge from conversations with people who remember us differently than we are today. And then we have to visit places we’ve been trying to forget and recall events from which we’re still recovering.

Am I the only person who goes into the holiday season with mixed emotions?

“Gather up the fragments.”

Unresolved fragments are shrapnel, cutting us deeply.
Handled fragments are sandpaper, wearing off our rough edges.
Softened fragments are building blocks, giving us insights to get things done.
Celebrated fragments are nutrition, remembering past miracles in our lives.

Bright mosaics are made from gathered fragments.
Broken. Colorful. Unique.

Just like the pattern of your life.

Negotiate your broken places.
They allow for new connections.

Appreciate the weirdness of your past.
It adds color to your future.

Celebrate your personal heritage.
It beats the hell out of whining.

Happy Holidays.

Roy H. Williams

PS – Take the journey of the wise men on the campus of Wizard Academy any Friday, Saturday or Sunday night in December. No charge. It's one of the little Christmas gifts we give each year.

Spend a day with a famous Architect… Dec. 12 at Wizard Academy.

Email Newsletter

Sign up to receive the Monday Morning Memo in your inbox!

Download the PDF "Dictionary of the Cognoscenti of Wizard Academy"

Random Quote:

“As always, everyone will be struck by the power of Scott's children, always more and less than human, perfect yet struggling, tragic yet hopeful, wondrous and strange.”

- Publishers Weekly, speaking of the child protagonist in Orson Scott Card's Ender's Shadow.

The Wizard Trilogy

The Wizard Trilogy

More Information

  • Privacy Policy
  • Wizard Academy
  • Wizard Academy Press

Contact Us

512.295.5700
corrine@wizardofads.com

Address

16221 Crystal Hills Drive
Austin, TX 78737
512.295.5700

The MondayMorningMemo© of Roy H. Williams, The Wizard of Ads®