"Wabi-sabi is a beauty of things imperfect, impermanent, and incomplete.
It is a beauty of things modest and humble.
It is a beauty of things unconventional."
Leonard Koren, Wabi-Sabi for Artists, Designers, Poets, and Philosophers.
Sometimes ideas overtake me. Everything important to me feels like it circles back to this single idea, from the most profound to the most trivial. Our pine floors and my attempts at minimalism. My children growing and my grandmother dying. It's all a part of this imperfect, incomplete, impermanent life. A beautiful life better enjoyed humbly and simply.
The idea seems to creep into every thought, every desire.
I look out at the brackish landscape, the dirty, sandy shifting shoreline where we spend so much time. It is not the landscape of post cards. It is not the place people dream of, but it holds a quiet, murky beauty. And it feels completely mine. And it, too, is wabi-sabi.
The start of spring. Wabi-sabi.
Our old house filled with old things. Wabi-sabi.
A desire for simplicity and less. Wabi-sabi.
The need for time alone, for space and solitude. Wabi-sabi.
It is a reminder to slow down and to pay attention.
It is an acceptance of the inevitable.
There is beauty in everything, even sadness and pain. Even death.
that's the book darin got me! beautiful! so beautiful!
ReplyDeletei feel this way with ideas. the way they all connect, the way cerebral thoughts become bits of reality, like you said, both large and small. i love the way our minds connect and create realities like this. our minds and i must add, our hearts.
thank you for getting me pondering wabi-sabi and all its strange looping webs.
Isn't it great? the problem is it left me wanting. i have read it cover to cover twice now. it's full of the gaps and possibility it espouses. i love filling it in with my imagination.
DeleteI'm so sorry to hear about your grandmother. . . breaks my heart. . . I just went through that two years ago. Sending positive vibes and love to you all!
ReplyDeleteThanks. It's hard, but she is 90 years old and has been a great example of how to do old age gracefully. She's a class act.
DeleteI just want to say how much I enjoyed the word, "brackish" here. Some words are delightful to pass around in your mind, even out of context. And brackish is doing that for me right now.
ReplyDeleteIt's a good word. It feels like an integral part of who I am. Glad it's getting some milage.
DeleteYour little piece of Coast has a gentle, slightly poignant feel - the beauty of the ordinary ...
ReplyDeleteI certainly love it, but that's the power of home.
DeleteSo sorry for the loss of your grandmother. I think your outlook on life and death is so beautiful and healthy, though. I just love this space you've created. Happy spring, Rachel.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Lauren. Losing family is hard, but it certainly reminds you to keep the ones you love close. Happy spring to you too.
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