Jane Kenyon

Jane’s poem and some commentary of it has found me twice in less than a week which shouts:
PAY ATTENTION
and
S H A R E
Have you ever had some
OTHERWISE
moments. . . ?

While in the recovery room from a colonoscopy a very kind and attentive nurse told me I should get a mole checked on my shoulder. I did. But the mole I got checked was fine but there were two others ones that were discovered because of that visit that were not; they were successfully removed after being discovered that were cancerous. . .but it could have been OTHERWISE

* * *

I suffered through a agonizing night of urinary retention which resulted in an early morning Emergency Room visit before a busy day of two funerals and a wedding; while the young nurse was catheterizing me, she asked me what I did for a living and when I told her among other things, I was a hospice chaplain, she asked me what hospice and when I told her Hospice of the Western Reserve, she stopped and looked down at me and told me that her daughter of 8 months had been on our services and had recently died from brain cancer. It was her first day back after her daughter’s death and her taking off three months to grieve her. As we were finishing up with paperwork she asked me, “How did you know that I needed you to come in today? I told her at that moment being there for both of us was the only thing that made sense and that we helped each other. . .but it could have been OTHERWISE

* * *

I had a stye on my eyelid but in my mind it had to be cancerous that would cause a hideous deforming blindness and as luck would have it the eye doctor was open late on this Monday night and had an opening for me. He confirmed that it was a simple stye and could be managed with some hot compresses. I told him I hadn’t been to see him in the 20 years that I’ve had success lasik eye surgery but then thought but there’s other reasons to visit him just to make sure my eyes were in good shape. Tests were run and it was determined I have a cataract in both eyes that will eventually need repairing and pressure in both eyes that indicate early detection of glaucoma. It was a less than a routine visit for a stye that could have easily been taken care of by Dr Google and it could have been OTHERWISE

* * *

What’s been your OTHERWISE moment? Like the poet, Jane Kenyon, to be sure we all have those OTHERWISE moments, most likely more than we pay much mind. “ONE DAY” as Jane says at the end of her poem, “IT WILL BE OTHERWISE”

One day, for a sure certainty, there will be a visit that will leave me so very much different coming out than when going it, if I come out at all, and I will not so much fall as drift softly into the arms of whatever’s next–a world that can’t be glimpsed from here. . .
But until that Sunrise that’ll never set I hope that I, and sincerely hopefully, like you, we will truly rejoice in the happy OTHERWISE-NESS of being alive, of being here, NOW

It’s not so much a question you want to have asked of you
AS ANSWERED:
Honestly:
ARE YOU BROKEN. . . ?
Shattered
Splattered
Splittered
Shredded
Shambled
Smashed
Shared
K I N T S U G I E D

Wait. . .
What is KINTSUGI ?

KINTSUGI is an ancient Japanese method of repairing broken porcelain that uses gold to fill the cracks. It kind of reminds me of the Leonard Cohen’s famous lyric, “there is a crack in everything and that is where the light comes in.” For some reason when I pictured being cracked up inside, I tended to feel a harsh wind coming in, not the light. YOU?

This method of restoring breakage with gold is called Kintsugi (also known as Kintsukuori) and translates as “golden joinery.” I did some quick research and discovered that Kintsugi is an outgrowth of the Japanese philosophy of Wabi-Sabi, which honors the beauty of imperfections.

The Kintsugi artisan uses gold or other precious metal mixed with epoxy to repair the broken piece. This method emphasizes, rather than hides, the breakage. The repaired piece is often considered even more beautiful than the original.

Kintsugi embraces the breakage as part of the object’s history, instead of something unacceptable to be hidden or thrown away. This is kind of the opposite of what we all have been taught. Haven’t we spend LIFETIMES learning that we are supposed to be perfect, and that we must hide any imperfections. This belief is imbedded in our culture: if something is broken, toss it out; if something is flawed, hide it.

Kintsugi is the perfect metaphor for how we might be able to find healing in a life that for a long time, often seems not only cracked, but broken apart—and, in a few places, shattered beyond recognition. . .

BUT WAIT. . .
IT CAN ACTUALLY NOT ONLY GET BETTER
BUT BE BETTER:
There are three types of Kintsugi repair. The first level is when all pieces are available and the cracks are filled with gold to restore the piece.

The next level is when small pieces are missing. Those areas are completely filled with gold:

Last, when large areas of the piece are missing or shattered beyond repair, the artisan will take fragments from unrelated pieces to create a patchwork design. This is the one I identify with the most:

Below are some of my GO TO POEMS and quotes that have brought me a CALMING COMPLETEDNESS
along with an ongoing Kintsugi
that’s more a part of us
than we’ve ever been able to notice. . .

The Guest House by Rumi

This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.

A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
as an unexpected visitor.

Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they are a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture,
still, treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out
for some new delight.

The dark thought, the shame, the malice.
Meet them at the door laughing and invite them in.

Be grateful for whatever comes.
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond.

—Copyright 1997 by Coleman Barks. All rights reserved.
From The Illuminated Rumi.

Love your crooked neighbor
With all your crooked heart.
—W.H. Auden

The sun never says to the earth,

“You owe me!”

Look what happens

with a love like that—

It lights the whole sky.

—Hafiz

Summer Day

Who made the world?
Who made the swan, and the black bear?
Who made the grasshopper?
This grasshopper, I mean-
the one who has flung herself out of the grass,
the one who is eating sugar out of my hand,
who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down-
who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes.
Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face.
Now she snaps her wings open, and floats away.
I don’t know exactly what a prayer is.
I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down
into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass,
how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,
which is what I have been doing all day.
Tell me, what else should I have done?
Doesn’t everything die at last, and too soon?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?

—Mary Oliver

Otherwise

I got out of bed
on two strong legs.
It might have been
otherwise. I ate
cereal, sweet
milk, ripe, flawless
peach. It might
have been otherwise.
I took the dog uphill
to the birch wood.
All morning I did
the work I love.

At noon I lay down
with my mate. It might
have been otherwise.
We ate dinner together
at a table with silver
candlesticks. It might
have been otherwise.
I slept in a bed
in a room with paintings
on the walls, and
planned another day
just like this day.
But one day, I know,
it will be otherwise.

—Jane Kenyon

Quotes:

You may not find a cure, but you can still receive healing.

—Michael Lerner, Co-founder of Commonweal Cancer Help Center, Bolinas, California

It does not really matter what we expect from life, but rather what life expects from us. We are being questioned by life, hourly, daily, moment by moment. Our answer—to respond with right action and right conduct.Life ultimately means, taking the responsibility to find the right answer to its problems, and to fulfill the tasks which are constantly set for each individual.

—Viktor Frankl

Viktor Frankl taught that everything can be taken from us but one thing—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances. We cannot change these circumstances of being human, (pain, illness, loss and death)but we can change our minds and thoughts.

There is no enemy. We have stopped fighting anything and anybody.

The Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous

Be kind whenever possible.
It’s always possible.
—Dalai Lama

. . .and finally my humble offering, A LEAKY VESSEL
More than nicked up
scratched
cracked
I’m a leaky vessel
often just
dripping some goodness
secreting badness
each step on my Way
for some other
Traveler of the Path
to be quenched
moistened
along their Way
as they, too
d r i b b l e
on. . .

Y E S
We’ve all felt like a cheap confetti
all cut up
not all together
blowing away forever in the wind
never to be
never to feel
connected
completed again
until we get
K I N T S U G I E D
A GOLDEN JOINERY AWAITS US ALL
. . .are you ready?
Pssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssst:
you don’t have to be. . .
it’s happening, anyway;
Why not recognize it
. . .be a part of
I T

KINTSUGIED

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