I previously wrote about the art of kintsugi. Putting broken things back together to make them more beautiful. It really is a lesson for life. Instinct is to throw things out when they’re broken. To replace them. But what if you could take that broken thing…person…relationship…and put it back together better than ever?

A week ago my husband and I took a kintsugi class with a Japanese woman living in Italy. 

With a bit of glue and gold, we took broken items that we had in our house and made them…not new…but better. A small Japanese bowl we use for gelato. A glass box where I store my collection of small glass animals. Some ceramic plates made by the studio.

More beautiful than ever, though the scar remains. The reminder of the break is still there, but I don’t look at it with sorrow. It brings me joy because it wasn’t discarded. It was fixed and it is unique. It reminds me that nothing needs to remain broken, and there is beauty in brokenness.