I remember when I was little my mother owned a beautiful porcelain vase.
It sat delicately on our hallway table but had cracks like veins that ran across its smooth body like a map.
I remember I asked her how it had got to be that way;

"I dropped it and it smashed into tiny pieces, but with a bit of time and patience I was able to glue all the little parts back together," she replied.

I thought to myself how astonishing it was that something so beautiful could be glued back together even when it was shattered to pieces.