Kintsukuroi

Kintsukuroi (also called Kintsugi) is the art of repairing pottery with gold or silver lacquer. It’s a Japanese art form and has within it the understanding that the piece is even more beautiful for having been broken.

For the events of the past year, Kintsukuroi provides such a rich metaphor. I doubt one of us has felt unscathed by the pandemic, and many of us, at times, have felt broken. Pandemic aside, all of us have experienced those moments of loss, grief, change or fear, moments when something in us shatters.

As Covid restrictions ease, it’s worth keeping Kintsukuroi in mind.

What I love about Kintsukuroi is how it doesn’t superficially paper over the cracks to give an illusion of wholeness or try to create a seamless invisible join in an attempt to disguise. It accepts and acknowledges each break, highlighting and celebrating it, deliberately drawing the eye with precious and bold lacquer.

Congratulations to the craftsmen of the 15th Century. They took these already luxury objects that could so easily have been discarded and turned them into different and even more luxurious objects of beauty. Centuries later, their monetary, as well as their symbolic value is worth way more than the same object would have been in its original state.

So, I wonder what beauty in yourself you see? How much do you celebrate the ways in which the adversity you’ve faced in the past year has remade and recreated you and continues to do so? If adversity is too strong a word, try substituting discomfort, fatigue, or frustration. How much are you honouring with gold lacquer brokenness and what do you acknowledge about the new version of you that has emerged and continues to emerge?

Podcasts

Hot off the press are these two podcasts that we’ve made for the International Coaching Federation.

If you are a manager using coaching skills and want to increase your confidence using coaching virtually, you’ll be interested in my conversation with Carolyn Hartwig

And those of you who are already trained in coaching will be interested in the chat Jenny Bird MCC had with me about about keeping yourself at the top of your game with coaching supervision