Many years ago when I experienced significant loss, it felt like my heart had shattered into pieces and I had no idea how to repair the damage. I believed that I would remain that way forever.
One day I shared my feelings about my broken heart with a dear friend. When I was finished crying, she held my face in her hands and said, “Your heart may be broken and it may never be exactly the way it was, but it could be better.”
I had no idea what she meant. The thought of emerging from that pain better was incomprehensible to me. Not long after our conversation, I began to contemplate how I could begin the healing process and repair my heart so that it would not only function, but would be something I could count on.
Around that time, I was introduced to the Japanese art of Kintsugi, which is the ancient practice of repairing cracked or broken ceramics with gold. Kintsugi is built on the idea that by embracing flaws and imperfections, we can create an even stronger, more beautiful piece of art. It actually highlights the scars as part of the design, focusing on their strength and beauty.
“By embracing flaws and imperfections, we can create an even stronger, more beautiful piece of art.
”
The thought of reconstructing the ruins of my brokenness resonated with me so I began to imagine connecting the pieces of my heart together with beautiful gold. Piece by piece, I carefully rebuilt my beating life force. Gold is precious and the repairs I made were, too. The image of my broken heart mended with such beauty has remained with me to this day. As I have grown and gotten stronger, the flawed pieces mended with gold have become a part of who I am.
That exercise was an important lesson for me because I realized that everything in life is fragile and we should not be afraid of the things that might break us. Kintsugi encourages us to live a full, rich life because there is always a way for healing, and that healing can result in something more precious than we could ever have imagined. Imperfection and fragility are to be celebrated, and not feared. Like the golden fault lines, just as we are broken, we can be repaired, and the resulting pieces can be magically beautiful and special.