Roslina Chai is an author, mother, and "seeker of beauty, curator of experiences, and holder of space." She lives in Singapore, and the excerpt was originally taken from her blog.
SEED QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION: How do you relate to the notion that we were not meant to be alone in our brokenness? Can you share a personal story of a time you could see beauty birthed through the collective mosaic? What helps you commit to finding the 'space between the shards' where the light shines through?
I work and teach Mosaics...and yet never thought of it, in terms of brokenness and the acceptance of that
What interested me more, was the grouting...or the material we use to fill the spaces inbetween the tiles...It brings about the cohesiveness in the piece. Without the grout...the broken tiles wont make sense....and the colour of the grout matters a lot. The wrong colour can kill the piece...
See what I am getting at ?
Like in life...totally depends on what we surround ourselves with... Happiness , joy, positivity, compassion OR negativity, anger sadness.
We can make or break it...by what we surround (the grout) or immerse ourselves with.
About the tiles....I feel the broken ones, and the different ones add to the character of the final piece...Just like us ! The brokenness and experiences make us what we are.... interesting individuals.
Thanks for this... I will never look at a mosaic piece the same way again.
This is the first time I read something about the Mosaic. Thank you. It is very much true that our brokenness put together by collective persons can heal and build one another. If we stay independently nothing much good happens. Each individual would build up ones inner strength and try to bring about something creatively. It is possible only when the inner feeling arouses that others are with me.
Each of us need to heal and we need to help and support one another to do that. When the broken pieces, when each of us, come together, we will create a beautiful world together that can make more sense. It's like we are pieces of a jigsaw puzzle, meaningless when disconnected, but making sense when connected and formed as a whole. We live in a relative world, that means we are interdependent of one another regardless of our differences.
Each of us is broken and has healing to do That is the human condition. Collectively we are interrelated, we interbe. That is also what it is to be human. We are broken together. When I hold the awareness that we broken individuals are one and beautiful, I see that the broken collective mosaic is one and beautiful. Someone said we can be stronger at the places that we are broken -- we can also be beautiful in the ways we are broken. What helps me find the light shining through the space between the shards is reminding myself that as individuals and collectively we are intricate, fragile, and beautiful, just like a mosaic, and keeping my eyes open to see what is rather than see my prejudices and expectations.