The Beauty in the Cracks

Have you ever had one of those moments when you just know you were supposed to hear something?

I had one recently.

I was having a conversation with a group about how a broken dish can sometimes be repaired with gold. We thought the practice might be from China, so I made a mental note to look it up.

I began driving home, listening to The Creative Act by Rick Rubin. And there it was: Kintsugi, the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery with lacquer and gold.

The cracks aren’t hidden. They’re highlighted. 

The broken piece isn’t thrown away because it isn’t perfect anymore. The repair becomes part of its story.

And here’s the part that really made me smile. Earlier in the book (which I heard on the way to my meeting), Rubin talks about paying attention to clues, coincidences and unexpected connections. So, there I was, having just had a conversation about repairing broken pottery, wondering about the tradition, and then hearing the answer in the book I was listening to on my drive home.

If that’s not a little godwink, I don’t know what is. 😊

I loved that idea immediately. And then I started thinking about how often we do the opposite with ourselves.

We miss a few workouts and decide we’ve “fallen off the wagon.” We eat more dessert than we planned. We have a week when sleep is lousy and meals are whatever we can grab. We get busy and stop doing the things that make us feel good.

And somehow, one little crack turns into, Well, I blew it.

I was reminded of this over the weekend at Oktoberfest. Let’s just say there weren’t exactly an abundance of healthy choices calling my name. And Mr. Non-Compliant? He made a beeline for the elephant ears. Of course I got it on video. 😂

But here’s the thing: Eating an elephant ear doesn’t erase all the other healthy choices we’ve made. It doesn’t mean we failed. It means we went to Oktoberfest and ate an elephant ear.

We can enjoy it, learn from it if there’s something to learn, and then go back to our usual habits.

Maybe that’s what Kintsugi can teach us about health and life.

You don’t have to hide the cracks to be whole.

The missed workout, the overindulgence, the rough week, the plan that didn’t work out quite as expected…they’re all part of our story.

What matters is what we do next.

We don’t need to be perfect. We just need to keep putting the pieces back together, a little wiser and a little more accepting of ourselves along the way.

And sometimes, those cracks might become some of the most meaningful parts of the story.

Much love,
Health Coach Carol

“There is a crack in everything. That’s how the light gets in.” ~ Leonard Cohen