HEALING OURSELVES

Kintsugi is a Japanese art form of repairing broken pottery with gold. The philosophy is that
breakage and repair are honored and are part of the history of the object. The cracks and
repairs are just an event in the life of an object. The damage is not to be hidden, but to be
highlighted. With the repair a new object is formed. This also emphasizes the concept of nonattachment
and the acceptance of change. We like to hold onto things or to relationships.
None of us relish change, even though we know that change is inevitable in our lives.
As Henri Nouwen writes in his book The Wounded Healer:
Nobody escapes being wounded. We all are wounded people, whether physically, emotionally,
mentally or spiritually. The main question is not “How can we hide our wounds?” so we don’t
have to be embarrassed, but “How can we put our woundedness in the service of others?”
When our wounds cease to be a source of shame, and become a source of healing, we have
become wounded healers.
Our wounds are not a source of shame. Our healing is not selfish because it’s never just about
us. Every move we make toward healing—no matter how uncomfortable—is a move toward
becoming a source of healing for the world around us as we become a wounded healer.
We are all broken and in need of repair. By filling our brokenness with gold, we become
healed and become someone who is even more beautiful.

Blessing for a Broken Vessel

Do not despair,
You hold the memory
of what it was to be whole.
It lives deep
in your bones,
in your heart,
that has been torn and mended
a hundred times.
It persists
in your lungs
that know the mystery
of what it means to be full,
to be empty,
to be full again.
I am not asking you
to give up your grip
on the shards you clasp
so close to you
but to wonder
what it would be like
for those jagged edges
to meet each other
in some new pattern
that you have never imagined,
that you have never dared
to dream.

—Jan Richardson

Keep working on your own healing for yourself and for all the rest of us. Our world needs it.

Mary Anne Totten, CPE Intern