Wabi-Sabi: Embracing the imperfectly perfect

I woke up this morning thinking about Wabi-Sabi. The Japanese idea of embracing the perfect in our imperfection.

What is wabi-sabi

I found a few lovely definitions–all similar and yet different. To me, although I claim no deep understanding, this first definition from Wikipedia describes it best:

“Andrew Juniper notes that, ‘If an object or expression can bring about, within us, a sense of serene melancholy and a spiritual longing, then that object could be said to be wabi-sabi.’^[4] For Richard Powell, ‘Wabi-sabi nurtures all that is authentic by acknowledging three simple realities: nothing lasts, nothing is finished, and nothing is perfect.’^[5]

Here’s another good one:

The Japanese philosophy encourages us to focus on the blessings hiding in our daily lives, and celebrating the way things are rather than how they should be.

Thomas Oppong

That feels really important to me right now. Life has been challenging in recent days–even more so than usual. And I really want to celebrate that–to live all of it, to remember that it is all perfect in it’s imperfection.

There are a lot of different definitions of wabi sabi. I especially like this one:

Wabi–sabi is the view or thought of finding beauty in every aspect of imperfection in nature. It is about the aesthetic of things in existence, that are “imperfect, impermanent, and incomplete”.

kyoto-ryokan sakura,com

Which is everything, as far as I can tell–except maybe stuff made out of plastic.

For more poetry inspired by this time we’re living in, check out my post, The Lady or the Tiger.

Music about Wabi-sabi

There is a crack in everything. That’s how the light gets in.

Leonard Cohen from Anthem

It also reminds me of a song I love by Peter Mayer, Japanese Bowls

A Wabi-Sabi Golden shovel poem

Here’s a golden shovel poem from the above quote by Leonard Cohen. If you’re not familiar with golden shovel poems, they take a line from an already existing poem and each word from that poem becomes the last word of each line of the golden shovel poem. I learned about them from my friend and the wonderful writer/poet/artist Michelle Kogan:

Sometimes I think that I am here, but then I realize my mind is THERE

Far away in a world where what might be IS

A place that I think would be better than where I am–where I am better than I am. A

place where I do not feel pain, confusion, where I don’t CRACK.

But then the light shines through the window and Buddy the cat comes and lies IN

its warmth on the carpet sprinkled with seeds from a craft project. And love shines through my cracks–into EVERYTHING

Even though I haven’t vacuumed, and I think I should. But THAT’S

there, and now I’m here. And I remember HOW

that little girl smiled at me from her stroller in the cool morning breeze–and her mom, too. THE

cat with the weepy eye yowls at Buddy in the backyard in the afternoon LIGHT

And the two crazy squirrels chase each other up the tree. This is as good as it GETS,

The perfectly imperfect all around–and inside, too–I breathe deeply and let it all IN.

Poetry Friday

Poetry Friday has arrived again, this week hosted by Linda B (my almost neighbor) over at TeacherDance, shares some wonderful poems from Friends & Anemones: Ocean Poems for Children from The Writer’s Loft. It looks like a wonderful book. Check it out, and see what other Poetry Friday poets have to share–or share something yourself!

Thanks for stopping by.

Hope you find something to celebrate every day!

xoxo