Broken places. We’ve all got them.
There is no way to get through life without a broken place or two. But being broken isn’t the worst thing. We can put ourselves back together in time. We can heal at the broken places of our lives. We can accept the wounds we have experienced and know that because of them, we have grown stronger and wiser. We can courageously embrace the life history that made us who we are, and see our cracks as beautiful.
The alternative is to let our past define us, to get stuck in our brokenness and refuse to get beyond the hurt. Ernest Hemingway expressed it well in A Farewell to Arms (1929). “The world breaks everyone and afterward many are strong at the broken places.”
Kintsukuroi is the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery with lacquer dusted or mixed with powdered gold, silver, or platinum. The art is based on the understanding that the repaired piece is more beautiful for having been broken. What a wonderful philosophy to apply to our own brokenness. How wonderful to believe that we are better for having been broken.
She made broken look beautiful
and strong look invincible.
She walked with the Universe
on her shoulders and made it
look like a pair of wings.
― Ariana Dancu
God of the Sparrow 🌱 By Kathy Manis Findley 