主播大秀

Last Friday night, in the spirit of virtual togetherness, I gathered online with a bunch of great friends to cook in tandem. Separate we might鈥檝e been, but in cahoots we very much were, as we set about making that 80鈥檚 classic, Salmon En Croute - en masse.聽

Whilst attempting the perfect pastry and holding out for strong Wi-Fi connections, it was lovely to revel in the company of this large and familiar gang. How we鈥檝e all missed indoor, in person rendezvousing!

The fragmenting of family and friendship groups this past year has been something we鈥檝e all had to get our heads around and then, resolutely, find ways to overcome.聽

I read recently about the Japanese art of Kintsugi and it said so much to me about where we鈥檙e at today. Way back in the 15th聽Century, Kintsugi kicked off and became a bit of a 鈥榯hing鈥� 鈥� someone worked out that when their broken pieces of pottery were soldered back together with bright, little veins of gold lacquer, the end result was rather spectacular. Dodgy fractures were taken from unsightly fault lines and transformed into something to be spotlighted and celebrated instead. It eventually became so popular to have these gold streaks running through your pottery that people began deliberately smashing their pots to have the joy of seeing such beautiful repairs!聽

Kintsugi art suggests that when things are fractured, yes - they might be changed but they are not beyond remedy. And in fact, these ruptures can be reconfigured to fashion something even better.聽

As we seek togetherness and reconciliation of the many, newfound fragments of our lives, the reassuring words of Alain De Botton, a wonderfully wise, modern-day philosopher, have been ringing in my ears: 鈥渨e can deal with an awful lot of rupture鈥� he says, 鈥渁s long as there is capacity for repair.鈥� I believe this capacity, like so many things, is an internal job 鈥� and (a bit like the Kintsugi pots) can be thought of as a golden one too: as one of the Bible鈥檚 psalmists prays, 鈥済rant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.鈥澛�

Sustenance, of both a spiritual and salmon variety will surely see us through until we can return to that previous state of being where we can hug other humans and love other humans, just as we were meant to.聽