Kintsugi – my repaired stone
Kintsugi is a Japanese art form that is rooted in philosophy. It relates to the philosophical thinking of wabi-sabi – seeing the beauty in the flawed or imperfect.
Kintsugi means golden seams or Kintsukuroi, which means golden repair. It is the art of fixing broken pottery with gold. The revitalised ceramic becomes a symbol of fragility, strength and beauty. The belief is that something broken can be re-created into something even more beautiful.
In a past winter, I noticed a stone in a plant saucer outside my back door that the frost had fractured into 3 pieces. The broken stone in itself was beautiful to my eyes. However the idea formed in my mind that I could reunite the three parts of the stone and honour the fractures. Something in the stones environment led to it breaking, to it becoming three separate parts rather than one whole. I was able, with patience and the right tools, to reunite the three parts back into one whole. The repaired fractures were honoured with gold. I now see a stone with greater beauty and new purpose. It will not be discarded as a broken stone but has been recreated as a tool for me to communicate my healing journey and to offer hope to anyone that thinks they are broken beyond repair.