I have come across a beautiful and timeless Japanese art called “kintsukuroi”, which is the practice of repairing broken pottery with gold.
Cracked and shattered items are lovingly pieced back together and the cracks flooded with liquid gold.
The piece is no longer perfect, but its repair is proudly on view in precious metal, integral to its new form, which only serves to make the piece more beautiful – not despite its breaks, but because of them.
The deeper meaning of this art is to consider: what if we saw ourselves the same way?
We all go through astonishing heartbreak and life explosions, from which we will never be quite the same.
There will be wounds, and we might try to hide them … but they are there.
We might think we are no longer as good, worthy, or tarnished in some way once the storms of life hit and we are no longer box-fresh perfect.
But what if we believed that we were not just okay because we have had a few breaks along the way…but that we are more beautiful because of it?
That our beauty actually lies within our imperfection and our transcendence of life’s slings and arrows?
That our uniqueness, flaws, scars, idiosyncrasies, are an integral part of the fabric that makes us imperfectly perfect?
That our survival and our ability to prevail in the case of hardship adds depth and richness?
This is life.
Not one of us gets out without getting a bit battered along the way, as well as screwing up royally a few times ourselves too.
No one, anywhere, at any time, has lived a perfect life.
Maybe it’s time to let perfectionism go for the mirage it is.
We are all good people; doing the best we can, with what we have, and what we know.
And you know what – that’s perfectly good enough right there.
What say you? Ready to relinquish the mirage of perfection for a little kintsukuroi? To fill our scars with liquid gold? To celebrate their beauty because we survived?
We are all worthy, not just despite the breaks we have experienced, but because of them.
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