Kintsugi (金継ぎ?) (Japanese: golden joinery) or Kintsukuroi (金繕い?)

New Zealand Loss & Grief Awareness Week

Many kinds of loss can leave a person feeling broken. Here's a fresh and helpful perspective on that concept:

Kintsugi (金継ぎ?) (Japanese: golden joinery) or Kintsukuroi (金繕い?) (Japanese: golden repair) is the Japanese art of fixing broken pottery with lacquer resin dusted or mixed with powdered gold, silver, or platinum. As a philosophy it’s about breakage and repair becoming part of the story of an object, rather than being something you need to disguise. (Wikipedia)

In mid-1500 Japan for that a bowl that was much admired and cherished by a military leader was accidentally broken by a servant. Everyone feared what might happen but the leader had the 5 broken pieces put together again. Instead of the break "…diminishing the bowl's appeal, a new sense of its vitality and resilience raised appreciation to even greater heights." The bowl had become more beautiful for having been broken. The true life of the bowl "…began the moment it was dropped…" (From The Aesthetics of Mended Japanese Ceramics Exhibition handbook)

In Japan, cracks in precious bowls are often filled with gold. Today, still, many Japanese believe when something has been damaged and has a history, it is even more beautiful. Repaired bowls can be been treasured by many generations.

Can this teach us anything about the healing and 'repairing' of grief?

 amazing how timely this came. First time I think of this way. You guys have become more beautiful. God works in amazing ways.

I have never thought of this way, someone told me once crack, will always be cracked. This kintsukuroi has given me new insight. Thanks.

Dear administrator, I am not into ( I am loss for words.) Your post is amazing. I mentioned someone who told me that a mirror once cracked will never be the same, same as bereavement. I had held this notion for 24 years. That person died a year ago, and today is her birthday, as I discussed with her daughter, it seems it was her in heaven telling me that Kintsukuroi (金繕 tells me through Andrew's death, I have become a more beautiful and loving person. Am I saying it right? 

This had given me a totally new prospective. Someone once told me, a bowl once broken will always be cracked. Kintsukuroi (金繕 gives me a different thing to think about.