wabi-sabi

A little dive into why I love this concept, why we celebrate all the holidays and why I don’t always use capital letters!

Wabi-Sabi is the art of embracing imperfection, one might say this is also the idea behind eclectic decorating and life! I have often seen myself as an eclectic or chaos witch-variety and inclusivity is the spice of life after all!

The world often values perfection and order, but the Japanese philosophy of Wabi-Sabi is sort of the anti-thesis of this, and it is a refreshing perspective on beauty. Wabi-Sabi celebrates imperfections, impermanence, and the inherent beauty found in the simplicity of life. I feel we could all benefit and get behind this!

Wabi-Sabi encourages us to find beauty in the natural cycle of growth and decay. Something that we all experience, and something we celebrate with the wheel of the year and our celebrations.

It accepts the transient and imperfect, and acknowledges that nothing lasts, nothing is finished, and nothing is perfect.

At its heart Wabi-Sabi asks us to find the beauty in the imperfect, the incomplete, and the unconventional. We are asked to find inspiration in the weathered, worn, and aged, the unusual combinations of things like when we celebrate all the holidays in our home. Every culture celebrates at similar times, the big holidays-and we celebrate them all. This was an important lesson I wanted my kids to know growing up-inclusivity, choice and the beauty in all the different paths. We still do this today (and sometimes birthdays get included if they are close to the holidays we are celebrating.

This ideal extends to all areas of life. In art, it can be seen in the simplicity of a tea bowl with irregular shapes and glazes. In architecture, it might manifest in the use of natural materials that age gracefully over time, telling a story of the passage of years.

One of the most important ideas we see this reminding us of is: mindfulness – being present and fully engaged in the current moment. This is so important in our busy lives - to appreciate the fleeting beauty of the world around us, embracing the imperfect and fleeting nature of life itself. The idea of wabi sabi serves as a gentle reminder to slow down, appreciate the simple joys, and find contentment in the present moment. It challenges the notion that beauty is synonymous with flawlessness, urging us to see the profound beauty in things as they are. Years ago, an ex beau of mind reminded me that it is the unusual, the imperfect that make things beautiful, no flower petal is perfect, or exactly like another, some of our favorite stars of the silver screen have special qualities that make them memorable (this was in response to me complaining that my lips are uneven, but he is right, and this is the idea of wabi sabi in conversation).

I encourage you to explore this in your life, take time to notice the imperfect beauty, break decorating rules if you want, and grammar rules-poets do it, why can’t we? I often feel it is more powerful in writing not to follow the rules (that’s why i miss capital letters and periods-could also be that I have three teachers as my parents and my inner rebel can’t follow rules!) And celebrate all the things you want when you want!