Kintsugi

Expansion by Paige Bradley

Another view of Cohen's quote:

There is a crack in everything.
That's how the light gets in.

I love the image of light entering my life through the cracks. Even so, it was surprising to learn about the Japanese art of kintsugi ~ a beautiful metaphor!

Kintsugi is the Japanese art of fixing broken pottery with lacquer mixed with powered gold, silver or platinum. The philosophy is akin to the Japanese philosophy of wabi-sabi, an embracing of the flawed or imperfect.

Sometimes, if the break has left a gap, another piece of pottery is blended in to the original piece. What may seem useless or broken beyond repair is renewed. It doesn't look the same, but the gold which joins it, which brings it back to wholeness, provides a visible acknowledgement of value.

Many times in my life I've felt broken, sometimes even shattered. The outpouring of love, prayer and caring from friends has helped to mend me. It's been the golden lacquer of healing. I'm not the same as I was before that sense of brokenness. My flaws and imperfections are even more visible. My self-definition changes ~ I have the opportunity to see myself negatively, as broken or lost, or to see myself positively, as whole though different. I fluctuate between these definitions and images of myself. No matter what I project to others, I know what's happened. I know what I feel, what I've experienced, how I've been hurt. My heart is drawn into Cohen's words: "That's how the light gets in." That's how I allow others to patch me with their golden lacquer of love.

How do you heal? What do you allow when you feel broken? How does the light get into your world? How do you re-define yourself?