Kintsugi

The first one, and the room was full before the greenery had finished going down the runner.

Everyone came to a place already set: a length of burlap down the middle of the table, bay leaves along it, a candle at each end and flowers in the centre where people ended up putting their cups. Two hours is not long, and none of the time was spent finding things.

The pieces were the mixed kind you would expect the first time. Some people brought something of their own that had been in a cupboard since it broke; the rest worked on a plate or a bowl from the table. The repairs went the same way regardless: find the break, work the gold along it, and stop trying to hide the line.

Every piece went home the same afternoon. The photographs at the end are people holding what they had made, which was the part nobody expected to matter as much as it did: a plate that had been in a bag in a cupboard, and is now on a shelf with a gold line across it.