Dear Diary,
Today I learned about the art of Kintsugi. Let me show you how I learned:
Step 1:
Accidentally drop your phone on the floor. Bend and snap right into the delicate, white vase at your friend’s parents house after they kindly invite you for dinner.
Step 2:
Apologize profusely and help pick up the pieces. Bonus points if you don't cut your fingers.
Step 3:
Offer them money or to replace the vase, but end up offending everyone. Repeat Step 2.
Step 4:
Wait at the kitchen table while your friends parents’ set up an intricate looking repair kit. Don't touch the broken vase pieces, epoxy, small brushes, or gold powder until further instructed.
Step 5:
Watch as your friend’s mom mixes a tiny bowl of gold powder and epoxy together while their dad organizes the pieces in a specific pattern that he will not share with you.
Step 6:
Get ready to hold stuff for a long time. Your friend’s mom will quickly and precisely apply the thick, gold goop to the broken edges as their dad sticks two pieces together that make up the bottom of the vase.
Step 7:
They hand you the fragmented vase, and say hold tight. So, you do. With each new piece mom applies the glue and dad perfectly places it in the right spot. It is your job to hold it all together. And it's the least you can do after breaking the damn thing.
Step 8:
Hold still with the tacky glued vase in your hands until your friend’s parents say to stop. This could take 30 minutes to 3 hours.
Step 9:
No one told you to stop.
Step 10:
Let go and marvel that the broken pieces not only stayed together, but what was once a pretty white vase, is now even more beautiful with the new cracks criss-crossing each other like threads of gold.
Step 11:
Take 5 minutes to appreciate the flaws in life, putting the pieces back together, and creating something beautiful from something broken.
Easy enough, right? Until next time, diary, let's embrace the beauty in our flaws.
Xoxo,
Maria