Kintsugi
Kintsugi is the Japanese tradition of repairing broken pottery with gold. There are some lovely images that can be found of beautiful Japanese pottery that has been broken and repaired with gold. The tradition seems to have started in the fifteenth century when the Japanese emperor broke his favourite cup and wanted it repaired. More about the story can be found here.
The practice of repairing a broken plate or vessel with precious metal, gold or silver or laquer dusted with powdered gold, changes the way the flaws are viewed. They become enhanced and beautiful; the repair gives the pottery an enhanced quality. The flaws become beautiful. Each repaired item takes on a uniqueness, a beauty that cannot be repeated.
So how does this apply to us…
We all have our own stories. These stories include our experiences, what we’ve seen, how we’ve felt, the places we’ve been, our history. The way we tell these stories to ourselves and to others and the words we use to describe these stories and the experiences contained within them can have an impact on how we feel.
Our life’s stories can be characterised by the challenges, struggles, setbacks and pain that we’ve had. And there will be stories that are imbued with happiness, joy, pleasure, contentedness and achievement. The colour of our stories might be more dark than light and bright, sometimes we might notice more balance.
Sometimes we feel broken. And sometimes we feel healed. Healing the brokenness can be challenging. There might be more pain, and there might be less pain too.
Our brokenness
The broken pottery heart is repaired with gold. This creates a beautiful pottery heart with golden flaws.
The brokenness in us can be healed to create a more beautiful version of ourselves. The flaws remain, they become a beautiful reminder of our learnings, our experiences, our growth. Just like it can take time to repair ceramics using the kintsugi technique, it takes patience and effort to repair our own brokenness. And we often need help to alter the way we tell our stories, and to view our stories from different perspectives. The altered stories about our brokenness can contribute to the repair and to the gold in our story, the beautiful flaws that make up our individuality.
If you would like to contact me to discuss how I might be able to help you with your story, how we might be able to work together to find the gold to heal the brokenness please don’t hesitate to contact me.
My contact details can be found here. Or you can make an appointment here.