Sunday, September 30, 2018

THE BEAUTY OF BROKEN PIECES




Pieces
There are so many broken pieces of me.
They have been harshly shattered.
Fractured by wave after wave of grief,
ground into the floor by pain,
covered with darkness by depression,
soaked by tears.

And so there they have lain, distant and disconnected from the few left intact.
Yet occasionally, rays of light penetrated...
They pierced darkness, disregarded the chaos and flittered around pieces like translucent dragonflies.
The tears sparkled and there was a sort of sacred beauty...
I wanted more of that.

Love persistently & steadily shone light down over sharp edges,
Comfort ministered gentle healing,
Hope carefully & respectfully turned over each piece,
studying it, believing it still had a place, a purpose, even a new story.
Grace picked one up and carefully found its original spot.
Against weak protest, it put it in place again with Gilead´s balm.
And slowly, ever so slowly,
Gently, ever so gently,
My broken pieces are being gathered.
They are being healed, are being put into place again.
It is taking so much time - more than I ever thought possible.
More time than a lot of people think it should take.
But healing time is in the hands of the Wonderful Counselor,
of the Good Shepherd, of the One who is near to the brokenhearted.

The Japanese have a surprising art form for mending broken items: Kintsugi ¨golden joinery¨ or Kintsukuroi ¨golden repair.¨  This centuries old art of fixing broken pottery fascinates me in my own brokenness.  When a ceramic piece is broken, it is repaired with a lacquer dusted with gold or with liquid gold. Beautiful seams of gold glint in the cracks of ceramic ware, giving a unique appearance to the piece.  Every repaired piece is unique because of the randomness of the shatters. This practice, this art, highlights and enhances the breaks thus adding value to the broken object.

Wabi-sabi is a world view (of which Kintsugi is a part) and is centered on the acceptance of transience and imperfection.  The aesthetic is sometimes described as one of beauty that is imperfect, impermanent and incomplete.¨  (Welcome to my world!)

Isn´t that stunning? It also sounds like the world view of a God who loves, restores, redeems and heals gently, shows us beauty in the process and then holds us up to the world, saying, ¨Look at this beautiful piece of art! See those broken veins? They are its most valuable part - they are filled with gold!¨ Our scars actually become the showcase piece.

Pieces.
There are so many broken pieces...





Photo: Unknown. Pictured on Lifegate.com
Info on Kintsugi from Wikipedia and Lifegate.com

Friday, January 19, 2018

LET THERE BE LIGHT (The Journey Out Of Depression)




¨And God said, ´Let there be light,´ and there was light

Genesis 1:3



Let there be light
where there has been darkness
Let there be truth
where there have been lies
Let there be joy
where there has been sadness.

Let there be energy
where there has been exhaustion
Let there be insight
where there has been confusion
Let there be laughter
where there have been tears.

Let there be freedom
where there has been captivity
Let there be peace
Where there has been anxiety
Let there be vision
where there have been shadows.

Let there be outings
where there has been hiding
Let there be concentration
where there has been murkiness
Let there be humor
where there has been moodiness.

Let there be openness
where there has been protectiveness
Let there be caring
where there has been self-preservation
Let there be thriving
where there was only surviving.

Let there be healing
where there has been pain
Let there be resilience
where there has been fragility
Let there be constancy
where there has been instability.

Let there be strength
where there has been weakness
Let there be conviction
where there has been uncertainty
Let there be metamorphosis
where there has been stagnancy.

Let there be movement
where there has been paralysis
Let there be colors
where there has only been black & white
Let there be life
where there was only ash.

Let there be music
where there was only silence
Let there be celebration
where there was only a dirge
Let there be praises
where there were only laments.

Let there be, 
Oh, let there be!
in this sacred exodus
an embracing
of all these good things.



¨O send out Your light and Your truth, let them lead me...¨
Psalm 43:3


¨the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth...¨
Ephesians 5:9




Photo by: Iamdogjunkie