Today’s reflection is inspired by Kintsugi; a Japanese technique for mending broken pottery by emphasing the cracks with gold and making it even more beautiful.
The photo is of a kintsugi teabowl by Morty Baker Lakeside Pottery Studio.
Kintsugi is a reminder that we do not have to hide our history and pretend that hard times never happened. Our recovery can leave scars that make us more beautiful.
Here are two quotes that fit with this idea;
The first is one of Hemingway’s best-known and most philosophical quotes occurring near the end of ‘A Farewell to Arms’
“The world breaks everyone,
then some become
strong at the broken places.”
Ernest Hemingway, 1929
The second is the refrain from Leonard’s Cohen’s song “Anthem”
“Ring the bells that still can ring,
Forget your perfect offering,
There is a crack in everything
That’s how the light gets in”
Leonard Cohen said of the song
“….. a philosophical ground, that is “Ring the bells that still can ring.” It’s no excuse… the dismal situation.. and the future is no excuse for an abdication of your own personal responsibilities towards yourself and your job and your love. “Ring the bells that still can ring”: they’re few and far between but you can find them. …….This is not the place where you make things perfect, neither in your marriage, nor in your work, nor anything, nor your love of God, nor your love of family or country. The thing is imperfect. And worse, there is a crack in everything that you can put together, physical objects, mental objects, constructions of any kind. But that’s where the light gets in, and that’s where the resurrection is and that’s where the return, that’s where the repentance is. It is with the confrontation, with the brokenness of things.”
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