in Choose Hope Today, Joy
Kintsugi is the Japanese art of fixing broken pottery with gold, silver, or platinum lacquer. Rather than replace the pottery or hide the cracks, the object’s brokenness is incorporated into the new piece, at once honoring the history of the object and highlighting the importance of the cracks in the object’s restoration. Arguably, the object is made more beautiful for its brokenness. What an inspiring concept… seeing the potential in the broken, the honor in the history, and a renewed purpose in the loss and pain.
This concept can be applied to our own lives. We can try to disguise the cracks, ignoring or hiding our brokenness through any number of harmful, dysfunctional behaviors; in so doing, you might be happy on the surface, with no visible cracks. But happiness is fleeting; it is external, its facade easily destroyed by close inspection or circumstance. Joy, on the other hand, is internal and abiding and comes from a deep-down understanding of your purpose and who you are at a core level. Your life has a story to tell, one that needs to be told and heard; but it must be told with self-awareness and authenticity, cracks and all.
Friend, journeying through Living Hope’s Practices, you awakened to your own possibilities. You faced your brokenness and Surrendered what you could not control. Stillness allowed you to see the possibility in the brokenness by helping you view your reality with a clear perspective. Going through your Grief and offering yourself Forgiveness, you undertook the painstaking process of picking up the pieces of your life and releasing from the pain of your struggle; and through Honesty and Curiosity, you put those pieces back together, but with a new perspective, becoming your true self by understanding more about yourself and how you got where you are. And embracing your Resilience, you accepted your experiences, including your cracks, and you appreciate them for where they led you – to freedom as a new creation, beautifully restored. Now, you will find Joy in actualizing your true narrative and your renewed purpose.
At Living Hope, Joy is the eighth and final step on your path to healing and Hope. Joy comes from finding contentment and authenticity in yourself and then being able to form a relationship with the person you are meant to be. When you remove the pretense of all that you thought was expected of you and learn to be true to yourself and your story, you will make peace with who you once were, become content with who you are, and convicted in who you can become.
You will begin the Practice of Joy by committing to know and appreciate yourself exactly as you are, to be truthful in your testimony, and to come to know and understand the desires of your heart. Joy comes in being content with the beauty and the pain of where you are in the present and letting life unfold exactly as it is meant to.
You can Practice Joy now. You have come a long way, so love who you are and embrace this new you. Walk in authenticity, and experience the elation that comes with knowing and understanding your true self. And in the face of adversity and confusion, choose Hope.
Be Joyful.