Kintsugi Dancing

Kintsugi (金継ぎ^?) (Japanese: golden joinery) or Kintsukuroi (金繕い^?) (Japanese: golden repair) is the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery with lacquer dusted or mixed with powdered gold, silver, or platinum  ...  As a philosophy it treats breakage and repair as part of the history of an object, rather than something to disguise. 




I'm currently in the midst of two group expressions and experiences of going into the darkness with the Goddess. This is the time of year for this passage. As any time of groping around in a dark passage, what I find is evidence of brokenness. Evidence that reveals how the broken pieces have healed and rejoined is also tangible in that darkness.

Finding it embedded deep within reminded me of the Japanese art of Kintsugi, joining broken pieces with elements of powdered precious metals to make art out of brokenness. That's what I am: art with visible broken places and shiny scars exposing the unique beauty of how I have healed.... and how much has returned to wholeness.

In the midst of these visions and memories, I am awestruck by the difference in my outlook. It's easier to accept my flaws, to embrace the healing and to let go of the wounding arrows. I'm by no means perfect, inside or out. What I am is reunited. What I am is reformed. What I am is released. It's always my choice as to how I walk in this world, whether I twist and bend to hide the broken places or dance fully revealed and let the scars show that piece of who I am.

What about you? How do you walk in this world? Do you let your brokenness show? What pieces do you keep hidden? Are you aware of your own beauty? How does that awareness define your movement?

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?