When I first chose the word “whole-hearted” as my guiding word for the year. I thought it meant that I had to pour my whole heart into everything I was doing. I didn’t want to do anything that I thought was important half-heartedly. I was wrong. That approach led to exhaustion and burn out. As I slowed down, took things a little slower and really looked at the state of my heart, I saw that my heart was battered and broken in a lot of ways. That’s both the beauty and the sorrow of having a mortal experience. Our hearts are going to reflect our journey through mortality and sometimes our choices or the choices of others cause our hearts to break.
Have you ever heard a Japanese word called “Kintsugi”? It is a beautiful practice in Japan of repairing broken pottery with gold. The finished product helps you to value the broken piece’s beauty as well as its imperfections, highlighting them both equally as something to celebrate and not disguise. Kintsugi reminds us that something can break and still be beautiful and that, once you have repaired it, it is even stronger in the broken places.
This beautiful metaphor helped me see the many broken pieces of my heart, heart-ache from my life experiences, including seeing those I love leave the church. The gold that I used to repair my broken heart was hope, faith, love and prayer along with the belief that my heart could be healed by turning towards the Savior and experiencing His atonement. Even when my life doesn’t look the way I thought it would, I am better and stronger than I ever thought I could be. That’s because I discovered the “golden glue” to heal my broken heart
What is the state of your heart? Where has it been bruised, battered and broken?
Over the next several weeks I will share the “golden glue” that helped mend my broken heart, and that can help mend yours too.
If you have any questions about this post, or want to discuss how coaching can work in your life please Contact Me and we can set up a time to chat.
