Simply Blessed

I just returned from a healing retreat and was struck by how, as unique and individual we are, so many of us share the same struggle with being hard on ourselves.

I’ve come to find for myself that the only way out of something is actually to move towards it. I posted earlier this year about it in ‘Letting Myself Have’.  The voices of self-criticism don’t need our further rejection, they need our love and acceptance.

Today I share with you kintsukuroi, the art of repairing pottery with gold or silver. The concept of our broken places having made us even more beautiful.

The cracks are the articulation of our journey through life.  The gilding reveals where the inner light, our essence, love, has come to shine through.

May each of us come to savor our own artistic, tender, loving hand at becoming ever more precious.

Japanese Bowl

I’m like one of those Japanese bowls
That were made long ago
I have some cracks in me
They have been filled with gold

That’s what they used back then
When they had a bowl to mend
It did not hide the cracks
It made them shine instead

So now every old scar shows
From every time I broke
And anyone’s eyes can see
I’m not what I used to be

But in a collector’s mind
All of these jagged lines
Make me more beautiful
And worth a much higher price

I’m like one of those Japanese bowls
I was made long ago
I have some cracks you can see
See how they shine of gold

~Peter Mayer

My beloved child, break your heart no longer.

~Bapuji (beloved father of Kripalu yoga)