Kintsugi (金継ぎ), or “golden joinery,” is the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery with lacquer mixed with gold, silver, or platinum. Instead of hiding fractures, it traces them, honoring breakage as part of an object’s history. The cracks are not erased and the damage does not diminish beauty. Rather, it transforms and illuminates it.

Life breaks us in ways we never expect. It would be a miracle to get through this world without being hurt and coming out unscathed. Some wounds never fully close, with scars that cannot be erased, shaping who we are going forward. But breaking does not have to be the end of the story. There is a choice that follows the fall: to gather what remains, to mend ourselves with care, and to rise, not because of the pain, but in spite of it.

I am most moved by people who carry deep fractures yet remain gentle and kind. There is something unmistakable about them. Their smiles feel warmer, their eyes catch the light differently, as if touched with gold. I find myself drawn to them, loving them more easily and letting them in faster than others. Perhaps it is through our broken places that light and love enter, slipping through and conquering the hurt. Perhaps when we care for one another, we leave small traces of ourselves behind, filling each other’s cracks with warmth.

In this painting, she is screaming. Not quietly, not gracefully, but truthfully. The pain is raw, visible, unhidden. Yet within that expression, she becomes almost ethereal. There is beauty in her rupture. Being broken does not have to be ugly. Expressing that brokenness does not have to be shameful. It is often through the act of revealing our fractures that the true healing begins.