This morning only the gold lights are visible - shining through the shrouded city line. There is something about gold ....
“Gold is forever. It is beautiful, useful, and never wears out. Small wonder that gold has been prized over all else, in all ages, as a store of value that will survive the travails of life and the ravages of time.” — James Blakeley.
Forgiveness is golden. Put it together with glue and it is magical. It is Golden Glue!
This term, Golden Glue, is loosely taken from the Japanese art of Kintsugi.
According to art historians, kintsugi, a unique art form, was initiated when the 15th-century shogun Ashikaga Yoshimasa broke his favorite tea bowl and sent it to China for repairs. He was extremely disappointed when it came back stapled together. The metal pins were unsightly. So he had some local craftsmen came up with a solution — they filled the cracks with a golden lacquer, making the bowl even more valuable. It honored the bowl’s unique history by emphasizing, not hiding, the breaks.
I believe that in the same way the act of forgiveness is like this art form. With a touch of new and unexpected generosity, forgiveness can transform our brokenness into something creative making it more rare, beautiful, and storied than the original.
Life happens, bad things happen. Life breaks us, shatters us and then expects us to put ourselves together. Even after healing - our brokenness, our mistakes, our fallibility remain exposed – no matter what we do.
So instead of putting ourselves together with unsightly staples of rusted resentments, we can put ourselves together l with gold like the kintsugi crafters did so long ago. By using the golden glue of forgiveness, we too can turn our brokenness into opportunities to be worked with, not shames to be hidden. This way no experience is wasted.
“My advice to you, my violent friend, is to seek out gold and sit on it.” ― John Gardner
“Gold is forever. It is beautiful, useful, and never wears out. Small wonder that gold has been prized over all else, in all ages, as a store of value that will survive the travails of life and the ravages of time.” — James Blakeley.
Forgiveness is golden. Put it together with glue and it is magical. It is Golden Glue!
This term, Golden Glue, is loosely taken from the Japanese art of Kintsugi.
According to art historians, kintsugi, a unique art form, was initiated when the 15th-century shogun Ashikaga Yoshimasa broke his favorite tea bowl and sent it to China for repairs. He was extremely disappointed when it came back stapled together. The metal pins were unsightly. So he had some local craftsmen came up with a solution — they filled the cracks with a golden lacquer, making the bowl even more valuable. It honored the bowl’s unique history by emphasizing, not hiding, the breaks.
I believe that in the same way the act of forgiveness is like this art form. With a touch of new and unexpected generosity, forgiveness can transform our brokenness into something creative making it more rare, beautiful, and storied than the original.
Life happens, bad things happen. Life breaks us, shatters us and then expects us to put ourselves together. Even after healing - our brokenness, our mistakes, our fallibility remain exposed – no matter what we do.
So instead of putting ourselves together with unsightly staples of rusted resentments, we can put ourselves together l with gold like the kintsugi crafters did so long ago. By using the golden glue of forgiveness, we too can turn our brokenness into opportunities to be worked with, not shames to be hidden. This way no experience is wasted.
“My advice to you, my violent friend, is to seek out gold and sit on it.” ― John Gardner
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