Broken and even more beautiful

In the 15th century Japanese shogun Ashikaga Yoshimasu, sent a broken tea bowl to China to have it fixed. The bowl was returned held together with staples. Outraged the shogun set out to discover a better, more pleasing to the eye answer to repair broken pottery. His winning solution was to add gold dust to adhesive resin, so that cracks are made attractive.
"When the Japanese mend broken objects, they aggrandize the damage by filling the cracks with gold. They believe that when somethings suffered damage and has a history it becomes more beautiful."- Barbara Bloom

The technique is known as Kintsugi, "Golden Joinery" - Instead of trying to make the object look like new, and hide the cracks the focus is placed on the imperfections, they are front and center - what a beautiful metaphor for life.  


 We all have our flaws - we've all said or did things we wish we could take back - we've all felt broken at times - Right? Well what if, instead of trying to erase our mistakes, instead of trying to hide our flaws, we EMBRACE them - talk about emancipation!

 Kintsugi stems from the Japanese belief system called Wabi-sabi. Wabi-sabi (translated to "Flawed Beauty") celebrates the  "imperfect impermanent, and incomplete" and is polar opposite to the Western ideals of beauty. We live in a culture where we are bombarded by photos of women and men that have been airbrushed to the point of unachievable perfection. Growing old, saying "I'm sorry", "I need help", "I forgive you" or "I was wrong" shouldn't feel like a death sentence - why are we so afraid of our flaws? I'm not saying I am above all of this myself just that I am no longer willing to allow my spirit to be enslaved by this limiting belief. Life is meant to be lived not hidden from and by allowing the pain and challenges of life to act like the gold resin in the Kintsugi we allow the beauty of a LIFE THAT IS LIVED TO ITS FULLEST to be revealed. 
"Rise to the challenges that life presents You. 
You cannot develop genuine character and ability by sidestepping adversity and struggles." - Daisaku Ikeda

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