Kintsugi 2：Even the smallest step, taken with care, will one day connect to your own path.

Even the smallest step, taken with care, will one day connect to your own path.

This is the second thing I want to convey through kintsugi.

The process of kintsugi is made up of countless, delicate steps—so many that it can feel as though there is no end in sight.

Even when it seems like you have moved forward by only 0.1 millimeters,it is the steady accumulation of those tiny stepsthat ultimately determines the final outcome.

Today, I would like to write about two perspectives I have come to understand through my experience with kintsugi.

① Everything I’ve been through has quietly led me to who I am today.

Kendo and calligraphy in my childhood,part-time jobs during my student years,and the experiences I gained in the workplaces where I have worked.

The values I received from my family,time spent with friends,and the hobbies I have loved.

Marriage, childbirth, life in Vietnam,and divorce.

Putting childhood aside, the choices I made as an adult were not things I selected because I believed they would lead to a certain future.They were simply the choices I made as the person I was at that moment—and things I committed myself to, wholeheartedly, one step at a time.

Now that I am doing the work I do today,I often find myself thinking, everything is alive.

Friends have told me,“Everything you’ve done so far is alive in what you do now.This work feels truly like you.”

If I had to describe it in one phrase,I would call it a kind of reckoning—a quiet summing up of everything that came before.

Paths and choices that once made no sense to mehave, before I realized it, all led to this moment.And in realizing that, I feel a deep sense of being rewarded—ah, everything was necessary after all.

So even if you feel, right now, that this is “not it,”your future self will one day pick it up and make use of it.There are very few small steps in lifethat truly go to waste.

② No matter how hard things are, tomorrow will always come.

When I lost my mother, I was overwhelmed by a deep sense of loss.There were also times when, not being mentally strong, my heart couldn’t keep up—times when I lost sight of what lay ahead.

And yet, I am still here.

No matter how hard it gets,even if you can only walk slowly, step by step,as long as you keep moving, a day will come when you make it through.

Simply knowing that—that alone may be enoughto help us stay a little stronger.

And now, as I continue my work with kintsugi, this is what comes to mind.

That you have the right to choose your own life.

Even the days when you couldn’t move forward,the days when you stepped back,and the paths that seemed like detours—all of them become essential piecesthat shape who you are.

And one day,the single action you take todaywill gently push the back of your future self forward.

Even the smallest step is enough.Every path you have walkedis shaping who you are.

And tomorrowwill come—without fail.

That is what I wish to share.And that is why, even today,I continue to welcome new guests into my work.