ACCEPT THE BEAUTY OF IMPERFECTION
I love blue and white china. Give me some cobalt blue Delft, Willow, Spode, Nordic, or Royal Copenhagen, and I’m happy. Quite a few vintage plates adorn my dining room wall. When my son was three, he was puzzled by this and asked, “Why are plates hanging on the wall?” For decades, when my mom visited from Seattle, she would surprise me with a little vintage plate or teacup. She’s the one who arranged them on the wall. Several of those plates and teacups have been broken over the years. Many broken accidentally by my rambunctious little boy. I saved the pieces, promising that one day, my son and I would make a coffee table out of them and when he was thirteen, Josiah and I made that table. Together, we fashioned something lovely out of broken pieces of blue and white china.
When Josiah was a boy, he loved Big Garbage Day when large piles of garbage and furniture were discarded in front of people’s houses waiting for the garbage truck. He wanted me to drive him around the neighborhood and pick up treasures that he could repurpose. Grown up now, he’s still repurposing things. Recently, he texted a picture of a beautiful table he custom made out of a discarded slab of Douglas fir.
Broken and repurposed. Sometimes I feel that way. I thank God for the healing that He has provided in times of trials and brokenness. Wounds have brought pain and even hopelessness at times, but their scars also brought strength and humility as I reflect on how I have survived and prevailed.
My daughter, Anna, has a scar across the top of her toes and foot. I will never forget the summer she had an internship in Ventura, California. She was so excited about the prospect of working and surfing. Then came a phone call. “Mom, I need you to come. I have a second degree burn from stepping into a fire pit.” We hobbled through that journey together, driving back and forth to the burn center and caring for her burnt and blackened toes. I look at it now and am reminded of her bravery and ability to carry on through trial, pain and disappointment.
There is an ancient Japanese philosophy called Wabi-Sabi. It means seeing beauty in imperfection. An example of this is the ancient practice of fixing a broken bowl with gold lacquer resulting in a beautiful pattern. A broken bowl can be restored using Kintsugi (literally "golden joinery"), a traditional Japanese artform that highlights cracks with gold. Instead of hiding damage, this philosophy treats the breaks as a unique part of the object's history. The bowl becomes stronger after it is patched and the patches create a picture of a life lived with all of its ups and downs. It becomes a different bowl that can be repursued and reused, maybe not as originally intended, but in a surprising new way.
Everyone has a golden journey, wounds that have been healed and cracks that still show. Accept the beauty of your flaws and imperfections. Like my coffee table of broken china, you are one of a kind. No one has the same bumps, warts, breaks, or scars as you. No one has walked the same journey you have and survived as you have.
This is the stuff of life. We can set it up and expect a pretty life on display for everyone to see, but in reality, it’s messy, broken, and often painful. We all need a little fixing, and that’s ok. That’s normal. Hopefully you will find good friends and your Creator who loves you and will help you pick up the pieces, apply some gold glue, and heal the break. It will still show, but it will show your tenacity, your survival, and your unique story.
“Sometimes we must undergo
hardships, breakups,
and narcissistic wounds,
which shatter the flattering image that we had of ourselves,
in order to discover two truths:
that we are not who we thought we were;
and that the loss of a cherished pleasure is not necessarily
the loss of true happiness and well-being.”
―Jean-Yves Leloup
Published in The Facts Newspaper in the Brazos Living column June 10, 2026
