金継ぎ kintsugi is the Japanese technique of repairing ceramics with gold lacquer. It is an expression of seeing beauty in the imperfect, the weathered, the broken and repaired.

We should look at ourselves in the same way.

Our medicine heals and repairs. But sometimes there is a scar or loss of ideal function afterwards, be it torn hamstring or broken heart. Because our medicine addresses more than the physical or somatic body, it can help to see the beauty of healing.

This image is from urushinokomaya.

Here is a Tedx talk about kintsugi for many more words than I’ve written here.