This Changed How I Think About Connection
This changed how I think about connection.
I thought it was about getting it right.
sent by Krystal Chryssomallis | November 24, 2025
"We don’t connect through perfection.
We connect through honesty.”
Hi Friend,
There’s a Japanese philosophy I return to often called wabi-sabi.
At its core, wabi-sabi is the art of honoring what is weathered, imperfect, simple, and unfinished. It doesn’t chase polish. It doesn’t seek symmetry.
It believes that meaning lives in truth.
In this worldview, cracks aren’t mistakes.
They aren’t problems to fix.
They aren’t things to hide.
They are the very places where life moves through us — and where connection lives.
There is a practice in Japan called kintsugi, where broken pottery is repaired with gold instead of glue. The fracture isn’t concealed — it’s highlighted. The once “broken” place becomes the most valuable part of the piece.
This isn’t about aesthetics.
It’s about philosophy.
…and about being human.
What makes people beautiful isn’t that we get everything right.
It’s that we get many things wrong.
When we watch a violinist strain to reach a high note — and finally land it — we feel the work, the tension, the humanity behind it.
When we listen to a drummer that moves us, his soul is intertwined with the music and he's so dialed in with the music that you realize he actually isn't playing on beat... yet its with soul and we feel it more deeply that ever.
A painter’s style isn’t born from flawless strokes and painting "in the lines" — it comes from the way their hand moves through emotion across the canvas and the message they convey.
That is where “style” comes from.
That is where signature lives.
And The world doesn’t need a flawless you.
It needs the real, fully alive you.
And that includes resting.
Unplugging.
Accepting all the parts of you.
Softening.
The things we find most beautiful in nature and craftsmanship are never machine-perfect. They carry irregularities, marks, and uniqueness — the evidence of life.
In the same way, our personal journey becomes meaningful when we stop trying to smooth our edges and start appreciating them.
Real connection happens when someone accepts our imperfections instead of asking us to hide them. And maturity begins when we extend that same grace to others.
That is where emotional strength comes from.
Nature doesn’t aim to be flawless.
Mountains are jagged.
Trees twist.
Rivers move through resistance instead of around it.
And since we are of nature, there is wisdom there for us.
As a photographer, I don’t look for “perfect” scenes.
I look for light interacting with texture — worn walls, uneven ground, shifting skies, faces in their natural expressions. Life as it unfolds, not staged.
To me, what makes a photograph feel alive isn’t perfection.
It’s contrast.
It’s honesty.
It’s the authenticity of the subject.
That’s where depth comes from.
And that’s what wabi-sabi ultimately teaches us:
You are not meant to be seamless.
You are not meant to be finished.
You are not meant to be flawless.
Your hesitations, your doubts, your rough edges — they are not failures.
They are evidence that you are alive.
If you’ve been feeling blocked…
Disconnected…
Or like you’re not “ready” yet…
Maybe you don’t need to fix yourself.
Maybe you don’t need to force clarity.
Maybe the work is simply to honor what’s real, instead of trying to make it look better than it is.
The cracks aren’t what weaken us.
They are what connect us.
They are where the light gets in.
🌿 A few questions to sit with
• Where have you been trying to appear whole instead of letting yourself be real?
• What part of you feels unfinished — and might actually be sacred?
• When you hear criticism in your own mind, how would it sound if you spoke to yourself like a dear friend?
You don’t need to be perfect.
Your presence is enough… you are enough.
Sending light and love.
With love,
Krystal ♥️
About the Newsletter
Dose of Good is a weekly newsletter for people who want to live with more awareness, connection, and intention.
Each issue includes one distilled insight, one real-world example, and one grounded question to carry into your week.
A moment to pause.
A shift in perspective.
A reminder of the beauty and connection that already exists.