Hello, this is Ditto.

We struggle to hide our failures and wounds. We wish for our lives to be like smooth, flawless pottery that has never been broken.

However, there is an old Japanese repair technique called 'Kintsugi.' It is the art of piecing broken pottery back together and filling the cracks with pure gold. Pottery that has undergone Kintsugi is treated as a much more precious and beautiful work of art than before it was broken. Rather than hiding the damage, it elevates the scars into a unique pattern of its own.

American novelist Ernest Hemingway also wrote in A Farewell to Arms:
"The world breaks everyone and afterward many are strong at the broken places."

Where is there a soul without wounds?
A smooth life devoid of storms may lack blemishes, but it is also flat and dry. On the other hand, your scars—broken by tears and pieced back together—are a radiant golden pattern proving how fiercely you have loved and lived your life. Only when there are cracks and crevices can the light finally seep through.

Did you know that the scars on your soul, which you were so ashamed of and tried to hide, are actually the pathways of light that allow you to be most deeply understood?

[Today's Poem]

Flowers That Bloom as They Sway / Do Jong-hwan

Where is the flower that blooms without swaying?
Every beautiful flower in this world
Bloomed as it swayed,
Standing its stem straight as it swayed.
Where is the love that grows without wavering?
Where is the flower that blooms without getting wet?
Every radiant flower in this world
Bloomed as it was soaked, thoroughly soaked.
It blossomed its petals warmly while drenched in wind and rain.
Where is the life that goes on without getting wet?

I hope you do not blame your wounded heart for too long.
This is a time to carefully gather the broken pieces and mend them with gold.

Your soul is, right now, being completed into the most unique and resilient work of art.

This was Ditto.