The Story of the Teachers Bowl

A teacher had a ceramic bowl. This bowl was important to them. It was used all day for all of their needs. It had become an extension of who they were. They used it for: eating; drinking; rinsing; for washing. They really use the bowl for everything. The students around them knew that this bowl was so important to the teacher, that they were very cautious around the bowl to avoid any accidents which could damage it.

One day a new student arrived. He was given the responsibility of cleaning after a meal. As he was cleaning, he inadvertently bumped the bowl. It fell to the ground and broke. The teacher quietly came over, picked up the pieces and walked away without a word spoken and went into isolation. Once the student realized the gravity of his actions, he horrified what he had caused. The student then went into their own isolation after this incident.

Some days later, the teacher approached the student with a bundle of cloth and presented it to the him, he accepted the cloth bundle. Being as sad and disappointed as he was about the break, he expressed how much deeply sorry he was for the breakage and that he had ruined the bowl. The teacher said “you did ruin the bowl.” She gestured to him to open the cloth.

The student looked in the cloth and saw the bowl. All the pieces repaired between each crack with a technique called Kintsugi. The teacher had put a powdered gold in with lacquer, and it glistened in the light like little rivers throughout the entire bowl. The bowl was transformed. It now had a beauty unequaled, and the teacher said “you did break my bowl;  and life breaks things we love. Through that loss, through that pain. Can we realize the potential in ourselves, and in our lives.” Fractures allow us to heal, and to show our fullest potential. The glistening of those fractures and how they make us who we are moving forward. 

One of the hardest lessons I have learned is that ‘life breaks things we love.” Loss can provide the most profound lessons, as we allow it to teach us, and we accept the lesson. Loss can shock us into another reality. As I have shared previously, the operative word is “can”. Like a choice of energy taken. We have the choice to act or to shut down. Sometimes we have to shutdown for a bit so that we can take action later. Ultimately, we choose how much we want to suffer through an experience. We choose our interpretation.  If we pretend the experience does not impact us, it can weigh us down like an anchor for years to come. I’ve been there too!

As we open ourselves to appreciating the “cracks” in our façade of life, we can realize our fullest  potential. Fractures do not demonstrate imperfection, as perfection only exists as a figment of our imagination. They symbolize our openness to being the best possible version of ourselves.