Years ago, I got to a point where I felt that there was something broken inside of me. I wasn’t where I hoped to be at that point in my life. I was trying to do things that I thought would help, such as eating right, exercising, being active in my community, and building a spiritual foundation, to name a few. But something was missing. I talked to a close friend about what I was feeling; sadly, I did not get the support I thought I would get and still found myself stagnant in my broken state.
Then, I did something that surprised me; I sought professional help. This was a key turning point for me. There was a lot of work involved, but I was starting to see light and feel hope again. I was learning the importance of self-care during a time I was facing difficult circumstances. During this time, it became clear to me that taking care of those hurting emotionally and physically was important. I enjoy associating with others and interacting with them helped me get out of my headspace. During this journey, I came upon an article about a Japanese philosophy that shares the belief of turning adversity into beauty.
Kintsugi (Kint-soo-gee). Kintsugi is the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery with lacquer mixed with gold or silver. This treatment would disguise the breakage and make it look new. “Kin” means golden, “tsugi” meaning repair. This is the art of embracing imperfections.
Because our lives are neither entirely broken nor fully complete, there are, within each of our stories, inevitable cracks that need filling and fractures that need mending. How we begin to make repairs in the aftermath is up to us. We can fill the crevices with the things that may seem easiest at first glance – the rubble, the ash. In my case, eating habits, exercise, spiritual growth. While good, it wasn’t enough. Or we can dig deeper, past the surface, 'til we find specks of gold hidden amid the dust. Kintsugi refocuses our attention from what should have been toward creating something infinitely more beautiful with what remains, and perhaps far more honoring who we were made to be all along. Kintsugi provides a lens to see an object’s scar as being a part of its grand design, and it offers us the opportunity to do the same – to see our lives as rare works of art.
