The Broken Bowl

At Renascence we are drawn to the image of a broken bowl, repaired along its seams with gold. This reparation and reconstruction is a form of Japanese art called kintsugi. It might seem counter-intuitive to use an image of a broken bowl as one that represents our work but here’s the thing…. it is a perfect metaphor.

 Imagine dropping a favorite bowl or mug. We’ve all been there. We feel this moment of disbelief (how did I do that?) and then sadness (my favorite mug!) and then, maybe, acceptance – (well, there’s nothing to do but sweep it up and make sure there are no shards left for tender feet).

 It’s a bit like how deep transformational work affects us. There’s before and there’s after. Before, we are operating – maybe not at our best, but we are doing “just fine,” living within the constraints we have built for ourselves. This is our solid, known self. In the context of Renascence (which means rebirth, by the way) we go through intensive work and confrontation with everything that we have always thought to be true. We break open. In the breaking, there is fear, sadness, vulnerability – all of it. And there can be a deep sense that nothing will ever be the same. In fact, perhaps, there is a feeling that you are so changed that you may not be able to be “yourself” anymore.

 And this is the beauty of the kintsugi imagery. In the careful repair of the old bowl, the artist (that’s you) recreates an entirely new vessel. If you examine these bowls, you will see that the new creation is more beautiful than the old. At Renascence we hold our past, we pick it up and examine it, see the flaws and assumptions and we learn that we can do what we once thought impossible. We can lovingly piece together a new way, a new form.

 That is Kintsugi. That is Renascence.