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

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