When scars become gold

“What we need to do is not to avoid living but learning to recover after the adversities. Collect the fragments, Sokei, the moment has come to repair your illusions. What is broken can be reassembled, and when you will do that, do not try to hide its fragility as it is now become a revealed strength” – from ‘The Dream of Sokei’ in ‘Kintsugi’ by Tomas Navarro

 

Fixing what is broken is not considered a valuable mastery, especially in the western society and especially in the younger generations. The perspective to appreciate what has been fixed and to discover its beauty is even less popular.

In Japan, the kinstugi is the ancient art of repairing the broken ceramics with gold. The fragments are collected and put together filling the cracks with gold paste, which not only do not hide the cracks but on the contrary, enhances and embellishes them.

What we are used to hidden is highlighted.

What our eyes judge as unpleasant is celebrated with the most precious material.

A scratch, a dent, a scar, a crack … a moment of suffering, a pain, a difficult time, an impediment are events in our history, steps of our path, stages of our journey.

They are signs of our evolution process and it is up to us learning to recognize their value, to make the most of the opportunity they offer and to appreciate their power, opening our vision to the harmony and the balance able to guide the itinerary of our personal growth.

Far away from a painting and looking at it in its wholeness we can appreciate its value even more; in the same way, we can perceive the beauty of what, once broken, damaged, ruined, has been repaired and has been brought close up by a new contemplation perspective.

There is a moment beyond which, beauty remains forever. That moment happens in the awakening of the awareness to recognize the footprints of our path, to understand the chapters of our history, to discover the value of our wounds and to appreciate the merit of our mistakes. Every day it is our choice how we want to fill our cracks in.

 

SUGGESTED BOOK:

“Kintsugi, the Japanese Art of Embracing the Imperfect and Loving Your Flaws”, Tomas Navarro

 

Photo credits: Stefano Butturini