This post is dedicated to my remarkable, living kidney donor, Fran Moore Becker, whose golden kidney has given me countless golden moments to enjoy a healthy life for the last 16 years. Thank you, dear Fran. Your heart is also golden!
July 16, 2018 marks my 16th kidney anniversary. When a milestone date matches the calendar date, it’s called a Golden Anniversary. I’ve been working on a “Golden Kidney” Series
of jewelry that reflects and symbolizes the significance of kidney transplants.
While creating the series, I dIscovered a new word with a concept that immediately touched me with its deep, symbolic meaning for all transplant recipients. The Japanese word is KINSUKUROI, also spelled Kindzukuroi. It is the ancient Japanese artform of healing and restoring broken ceramics using gold, adding precious new beauty while extending life.
KINSUKUROI easily relates to my own life with kidney disease and being fortunate to receive the Gift of Life, a kidney transplant, from a living Hero. Like Kinsukuroi’s golden repair to a broken bowl, the gift of a kidney repairs a body in order to breathe meaningful beauty into a new and healthier life, one that is stronger and more resilient than before. My golden kidney is nothing short of precious, just like gold itself.
Kintsugi pottery, as the genre is called, actually means Golden Joinery. Pottery with these repairs can be viewed online, and in many museum collections. I’ve posted a few below.
As an artist, I was always intrigued with imperfections in objects, which may be why I love vintage and antique treasures. There are almost no perfect antiques. They’ve likely been scarred along their path. Scars gave items character. They never bothered me on the antique objects I’ve collected. While I didn’t love the scars on my arm skin after thousands of needle sticks during a decade of dialysis, or after transplant surgery, I accepted them. I can’t fill my scars, or the accompanying wrinkles of time’s passage, with golden lacquer, but I feel whole and find beauty in my life with the gift of my golden kidney from a remarkable living donor Hero.
Learning about Kinsukuroi and researching its meaning was both serendipitous and timely. When I introduced the first of these Golden Kidney pendants on Facebook, I only hoped for a few opinions. I was stunned to find that they spoke deeply to an audience of transplant recipients and donors who then shared the post with thousands of others on Facebook. We need healing and we need symbols of healing in our lives. The golden healing we receive with a transplant carries a depth of feeling unlike anything I’ve ever experienced
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Take 20% off my Golden Kidney Series through 7/17/18. The sale has this jewelry featured in both my Etsy shop at https://www.etsy.com/shop/KidneyJewelry and my website, www.Transplantgifts.com. Sale is stock on hand only, so shop early for first dibs! Enjoy this rare 20% sale on my Golden Kidney Series! Best wishes for many golden opportunities in your life.
