(Cambridge Dictionary) adjective, US /ˈfrædʒ.əl/ UK /ˈfrædʒ.aɪl/
easily damaged, broken, or harmed:
Be careful with that vase – it’s very fragile.
The assassination could do serious damage to the fragile peace agreement that was signed last month.
I felt rather fragile (= weak) for a few days after the operation.
UK humorous No breakfast for me, thanks – I’m feeling a little fragile (= ill, upset, or tired) after last night’s party.
There is a package on the front porch stamped FRAGILE. I feel like I need to have that stamped on my forehead and should behave as though everyone else has it on theirs.
I’ve broken many fragile things in my life, including expectations. In most cases I was careless, carrying too much or not watching what I was doing, crestfallen over the resulting broken item. Or I was insensitive, had a hair trigger reaction, not thinking through how my words/actions might land, not anticipating the feelings of others. This past year I confess, not with pride, to more of that than usual.
We are all worn out and fragile from helplessly watching a pandemic take so many lives and hurt so many loved ones, from the changes it has brought to our lifestyles. Our healthcare professionals—truly heroic always and most especially now—are raw with fatigue. We’ve lost some of them to the novel coronavirus, some to depression, even suicide.
This massive public health issue is overlaid atop issues that have reached a critical point of no return—racism, violence, climate change, economic injustice, more. Several people I know are also going through personal challenges and losses. Unemployment is high, many are struggling to pay rent and mortgages, to put food on the table.
Even in the best of times, we are fragile packages in a very fragile world, and inside fragile packages are both dangerous things like ticking bombs and priceless, beautiful, breakable things like fine crystal. A fragile vase, even one that’s been broken and glued back together, can still hold water.
This cracked old vase spilled some this morning reading the headlines about the vaccine-filled trucks going on the road. The great conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn—forming the Christmas Star or Star of Bethlehem—will occur on the solstice. It has not been this visible since 1226. In January, a new administration takes office in the US. Out of our fragility rise embers of hope, joy, light, strength.
Happy Solstice, Joyeux Noël!
Divine Ready 