Kintsuki, or kintsukuroi is the Japanese art of mending broken ceramics, using gold. What a beautiful idea. What very lovely results. The technique is an obvious and wonderful analogy for the repair of broken people, or people with broken hearts or minds. The message is clear.
If we are handled (or handle ourselves) with enough loving care and good intention, we can be put back together again, for sure. Yes, it will be still evident where the cracks were, but those mended cracks can be build ever so wonderfully into our being and can, in fact, make us more beautiful than before. To a degree, it is partly in the eye of the beholder. To some, perfect and pristine is the only acceptable state of being, but to many others, well worn and lovingly repaired can make hearts and minds resonate and sing.
The trick is to do a gorgeous repair job. I had a pair of jeans once, a long time ago. They were old, faded, and much mended. I relished each new crack and tear because it gave me another opportunity to patch those jeans of many colours. I used to sew a lot, so I had plenty of fabric around. Each patch had a story to tell .... when it was added, who I was with, and what garment which I had sewed did the fabric of the patch come from? The breakage and the mending became not just the story, but also the glory of those jeans. How I adored them! I loved wearing them with tops I had made that had matching patches on the jeans. Those jeans were really something.
I do love old. I do love well worn. I don't love broken. I must become a mender of souls, a repairer of hearts, a fixer of minds. Especially my own. What I realise now is there is no shame in being repaired, the only shame is in letting something lie broken that could be made whole, in a new way, even more wondrous and desirable than the old.
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