The Art of Keeping: A Lost Love for What We Have

Once upon a time, we cherished what we owned. We mended torn clothes, fixed broken furniture, and held onto things not because we lacked the means to replace them, but because they meant something to us. There was an art to preservation, a beauty in repair. The Japanese philosophy of kintsugi—mending broken pottery with gold—celebrated flaws as part of an object’s history, rather than reasons to discard it. But today? The moment something fades, breaks, or loses its luster, we throw it away.

This isn’t just about waste—it’s about what we have lost as humans. 

Landfills are growing, the planet is warming, and yet, we continue to consume mindlessly. We don’t truly use what we buy; we replace, we upgrade, we dispose of things that could have lasted longer had we cared for them properly. Clothing that should have been treasured ends up discarded in piles of fast fashion waste. Electronics are tossed aside for the latest model, even when the old one still works fine.

It isn’t just a climate crisis—it’s a crisis of connection.

Some might say this is minimalism versus maximalism, but it’s not. It’s about mindfulness. About recognizing that resources are finite and that what we discard doesn’t just disappear—it lingers, it piles up, it scars the Earth. It’s about asking ourselves: Do we truly need more, or should we learn to love what we already have?

I might sound like an old soul, and perhaps I am. But seeing things, clothes, memories that should have been treasured being tossed away—it hurts more than I can express. We need to remember that things don’t have to be perfect to be valuable. Maybe, just maybe, if we learn to care again, we can mend more than just our belongings—we can mend the world.