Kintsugi - can people mend broken hearts with gold?

Kintsugi is the Japanese art of mending cracked bowls with resin sprinkled with gold powder. The result is always beautiful and often poignant; a statement that something broken can be repaired and enhanced; raised to a different level of perfection.

I have seen photos of these works of art and each time have felt a corresponding kinship with them. They make me remember my own breakages; those dings and bumps of the soul and heart that are never forgotten; that bear scars silently and bravely.

And it made me wonder how I could raise my battle scars to the level of Kintsugi. Is it possible for humans to gild their broken hearts without flaunting the damage, without drawing undue attention to that which is past?



Most often, when someone suffers a damaged soul, they go through the classic stages of grief: shock and denial; pain and guilt; anger and bargaining; depression, reflection, loneliness;  the upward turn; reconstruction; acceptance and hope. It may take a long time to reach the last stage, but the scars still remain and are tender to the touch, triggering long-forgotten emotions.

I imagine a good time to mend the breakages with gold would be at the reconstruction stage. Instead of trying to forget damage that cannot really ever be forgotten, perhaps a liberal sprinkling of gold dust over a flexible mending medium may hasten the recovery process.

What exactly do I mean? I think that instead of feeling bitter about something, feeling singled-out or maligned, feeling that life has been unfair, we can accept the fact that this IS life. Things break.

And when the heart and soul break, this is the opportunity to grow, to enhance one's spiritual life with a new awareness of what's important, a new opportunity to be more empathic towards others, a time to understand that each breakage we suffer is an opportunity to feel more, to become more aware, to become more compassionate and loving, to become gentler.

Each time we receive a blow, we can fill the cracks with the flexibility of love and sprinkle over that the magical glitter of spirit, of awareness that each time we hurt, we grow closer to all that is, the great spirit that fills the universes.