When you Break How do you Heal?

Often when it’s dark, we break – physically or emotionally. But there is always a path through the Light to heal again.

Many aspects of our world prize the springtime of youth and ideals of beauty and perfection. But most of the world is old – or at least older – and, well, actually, imperfect. Perhaps even broken or battered.

There are profound lessons to be learned when things – or we ourselves – are flawed or fall apart.

Lessons

In Becoming Jesse, Dearie and Jesse share a beautiful story of the Japanese art of Kintsugi:

“Jesse, remember the ancient lesson of Japanese Kintsugi.”

“Oh yeah,” Jesse recalled, “they repair a broken bowl with shining gold. They put it in all the cracks.”

“Yes, and it becomes more beautiful than the original. This is the magic of how you come back to life. You break. But you fill your cracks with illuminations, golden illuminations. Then you flow on. Humming with the illuminations. Light on Jesse!”

This is a wise reminder to remember our magic – our Light; to stay optimistic when things fall apart and to celebrate the flaws and mistakes of life.

The Legend of Kintsugi

The Japanese legend tells the story of a mighty shogun warrior who broke his favorite tea bowl and sent it away for repairs. When he received it back, the delicate bowl was held together by unattractive metal wires. It was usable, but the shogun was dismayed. He turned to an artisan, pleading with the craftsman to restore his precious tea bowl to its lost elegance.

The craftsman pulled apart the wires and laid the broken pieces on his worktable. He sought a way to repair the bowl – just as our bodies heal a scar or a broken bone. He wanted to magnify its beauty as well as repair it. So, he chose a lacquer resin and mixed it with gold, filling every crack in the bowl with shining luminescence.

When the tea bowl was returned to the shogun, he could clearly see that the gold accented the cracks and fractures in his tea bowl. He saw its true story: it was battered and broken – imperfect – and he valued its new beauty all the more.

Kintsugi

This gold-filled repair became known as kintsugi. You can take a look at a video of a master Kinsugi craftsman here.

Kintsugi, which translates to “golden joinery,” is the Japanese philosophy that: the value of an object is not in its beauty, but in its imperfections, and that these imperfections are not to be hidden, but are something to value, appreciate and celebrate.

This ancient Japanese philosophy helps us accept our flaws. More than that, it teaches us to about valued objects and valued human life. It teaches us to be wise in a broken situation. We can learn lessons of the calm serenity we can attain as human beings – whatever is breaking around us.

The Value of You

Envision your life like a porcelain bowl. When things are going well, you are polishing the bowl. When things are going badly, your bowl is being cracked, fractured, or even shattered.

We all experience these breaks in our lives. Most of the time you repair the breaks as best you can and move on. But maybe the repairs are like the unsightly metal wires holding you together.

Somewhere along your lifeline, you know intrinsically that the metal-wire ‘fix’ works enough so that you can function, but you yearn for more. You truly want to put your bowl back together with gold filling every crack.

Celebrate

You begin to understand the lessons of Kintsugi. Yes, things around you break. Sometimes you break. But it is not about what is ‘out there’. It is about what is inside. Your wisdom tells you: You are the gold. You fill your cracks with gold. That is how you shine – shine – shine. Celebrating your imperfections. You are illuminating the best of yourself.

Light On!