<html><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body dir="auto"><div>When I read this I thought about all the different disappearing type blocks we do (9-patch, hourglass, churn dash) or just taking a block we don’t like and remaking it into something we do like. Or, taking scraps to make a scrappy quilt or just appreciating every quilt you see. But most importantly, not judging the quality of a quilt but appreciating what was accomplished. </div><div><br></div><div>You may not see this from the article, however, it is a wonderful article about taking yourself and others “as is” without judgement.</div><div><br></div><div>Daisy 🐾</div><div><br></div><div>——————-</div><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; caret-color: rgb(6, 7, 45); color: rgb(6, 7, 45); font-family: Raleway, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px 0px 10px; line-height: 30px;">Have you ever heard of the art <em>Kintsugi</em>? </p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; caret-color: rgb(6, 7, 45); color: rgb(6, 7, 45); font-family: Raleway, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px 0px 10px; line-height: 30px;">Poetically translated to<em> </em>“golden joinery,” <em>Kintsugi</em>, or <em>Kintsukuroi</em>, is the centuries-old Japanese art of fixing broken pottery. Rather than rejoin ceramic pieces with a camouflaged adhesive, the Kintsugi technique employs a special tree sap lacquer dusted with powdered gold, silver, or platinum. Once completed, beautiful seams of gold glint in the conspicuous cracks of ceramic wares, giving a one-of-a-kind appearance to each “repaired” piece.</p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; caret-color: rgb(6, 7, 45); color: rgb(6, 7, 45); font-family: Raleway, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px 0px 10px; line-height: 30px;">This unique method celebrates each artifact's unique history by emphasizing its fractures and breaks instead of hiding or disguising them. In fact, <em>Kintsugi</em> often makes the repaired piece even more beautiful than the original, revitalizing it with a new look and giving it a second life.</p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; caret-color: rgb(6, 7, 45); color: rgb(6, 7, 45); font-family: Raleway, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px 0px 10px; line-height: 30px;">While <em>Kintsugi</em>'s origins aren't entirely clear, historians believe that it dates back to the late 15th century. According to legend, the craft commenced when Japanese shogun Ashikaga Yoshimasa sent a cracked <em>chawan</em>—or tea bowl—back to China to undergo repairs. Upon its return, Yoshimasa was displeased to find that it had been mended with unsightly metal staples. This motivated contemporary craftsmen to find an alternative, aesthetically pleasing method of repair, and <em>Kintsugi</em> was born.</p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; caret-color: rgb(6, 7, 45); color: rgb(6, 7, 45); font-family: Raleway, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px 0px 10px; line-height: 30px;">In addition to serving as an aesthetic principle, <em>Kintsugi</em> has long represented prevalent philosophical ideas. Namely, the practice is related to the Japanese philosophy of <em>wabi-sabi</em>, which calls for seeing beauty in the flawed or imperfect. The repair method was also born from the Japanese feeling of <em>mottainai</em>, which expresses regret when something is wasted, as well as <em>mushin</em>, the acceptance of change.</p><p id="f605" data-selectable-paragraph="" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; caret-color: rgb(6, 7, 45); color: rgb(6, 7, 45); font-family: Raleway, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px 0px 10px; line-height: 30px;">Everything you do — good, beautiful, bad, ugly — can serve as a (life) lesson, even if it’s one you would never want to repeat again. Actually, mistakes can be the most important and effective experiences of all. And can be shared truthfully with those in need and that would deserve to learn that wisdom.</p><p id="3d87" data-selectable-paragraph="" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; caret-color: rgb(6, 7, 45); color: rgb(6, 7, 45); font-family: Raleway, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px 0px 10px; line-height: 30px;">Things may fall apart. That’s life. But if you’re wise, you can use every scrap, patch yourself up, and keep going. That’s the essence of resourcefulness, resilience, persistence. It’s <em>mottainai</em>. Some philosophers would argue it actually isthe meaning of life.</p><p id="5491" data-selectable-paragraph="" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; caret-color: rgb(6, 7, 45); color: rgb(6, 7, 45); font-family: Raleway, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px 0px 10px; line-height: 30px;">When we expect everything and everyone to be perfect, including ourselves, we not only discount much of what is beautiful, but we create a cruel world where resources are wasted, people’s positive qualities are overlooked in favor of their flaws, and our standards become impossibly limiting, restrictive, and unhealthy.</p><p id="b22f" data-selectable-paragraph="" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; caret-color: rgb(6, 7, 45); color: rgb(6, 7, 45); font-family: Raleway, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px 0px 10px; line-height: 30px;">The <em>Kintsugi</em> approach instead makes the most of what already is, highlights the beauty of what we do have, flaws and all, rather than leaving us eternally grasping for more, different, other, better.</p><p id="a23c" data-selectable-paragraph="" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; caret-color: rgb(6, 7, 45); color: rgb(6, 7, 45); font-family: Raleway, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px 0px 10px; line-height: 30px;">In other words, the experiences you have, and the person you already are, suffice. You may occasionally chip and break and need repairs. And that’s fine. But reality is the best and most abundant material on the planet, available to anyone, comes for free, and we can all use what we already have — including our flaws — to be even more beautiful.</p><p id="82a2" data-selectable-paragraph="" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; caret-color: rgb(6, 7, 45); color: rgb(6, 7, 45); font-family: Raleway, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px 0px 10px; line-height: 30px;"><strong>After all, our cracks are what give us character. And let us shine</strong></p><div dir="ltr"></div></body></html>