Kintsugi

Have you ever heard of the Japanese art of kintsugi? I have seen and heard about it for a long time but just learned the name of it today. The Japanese make beautiful bowls of lacquer and pottery. But life happens. Earthquakes come or other accidents occur, and these bowls fall and shatter. The Japanese don’t discard these broken bowls though. They pick up the shards and using the art of kintsugi, they put the pieces back together. They don’t use glue to try and hide the cracks. They use gold – a precious metal – to hold the shards together. It shows the bowl has been broken and has lovingly been put back together. The bowl isn’t the same. It looks different. It may even be shaped differently, but it is a bowl again.

Grief is so much like this. My heart shattered in a million pieces almost a year ago. I remember sitting there and thinking that I could actually feel like air was blowing through my chest…. like there was a hole the size of a cannon ball where my heart should be, and the wind was just blowing right through me. I always pause now when I go to say, I wish something from my heart…. because me heart is still so very broken. However, I envision my heart going through a long kintsugi process of being repaired but still being able to see the many cracks – evidence of my heart breaking – and proof that it is healing…but will never be the same. Anyhow…this was brought up in a grief zoom I was part of today and I wanted to talk on it now that I know the name of this art. I have put a couple of photos of examples below. I lived in Japan for 2 years but I don’t have any Kintsugi art. I think it is beautiful and each piece tells a different story.