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Maybe You Shouldn’t Put Your Shattered Life Back Together
The wellness industry is obsessed with resilience. But neuroscience says some broken pieces belong on the floor.
Kintsugi is the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery with gold to accentuate the cracks and demonstrate that broken things can become more beautiful than they were originally. I always thought it was a nice idea, but I couldn’t help wondering: what if there are too many pieces?
Not everything can be put back together. Some things are broken beyond repair.
I thought of this when a window shattered after a rock from the lawnmower hit it. I heard the impact but didn’t know what it was at first. It was the eerie sound of the cracks slowly spreading across the glass in every direction that caught my attention.
The window still sat in its frame — completely intact, but entirely shattered.
I watched, still and silent, waiting for it to crash to the ground. But it didn’t. It stayed. Perfectly in place, and perfectly shattered.
I laughed, thinking that was exactly how my life felt.
There was a sudden impact, and the cracks had been slowly spreading, yet somehow, I managed to keep all the pieces together. Broken, but…
