Wabi-Sabi Awaits You
Wabi-sabi is a manifestation of beauty that shines through things that are impermanent, incomplete, and imperfect. It is both a way of looking and an elegant philosophy, and it has been called the quintessential Japanese aesthetic.
Examples of things that manifest wabi-sabi could include:
- wildflowers blooming along the wall of an abandoned building
- a favorite, much-worn sweater with thin spots at the elbows
- the smooth, warm, silvery wood on an old barn
- a handmade tea bowl with a mark on one side where another pot has touched it during the firing in a wood-burning kiln
- the fallen petals of a plum tree drifting on the surface of a lake
One of the principles of wabi-sabi, very much in alignment with the philosophy of Radical Joy for Hard Times, is that all things have an inherent beauty, especially those that appear to be broken, for they could be hiding their beauty beneath the surface. In his delightful little book, Wabi-sabi for Artists, Designers, Poets & Philosophers, Leonard Koren reminds us that this ephemeral beauty does not call attention to itself. Rather, it requires our attention and openness before it will reveal itself. “An object obtains the state of wabi-sabi only for the moment it is appreciated as such,” Koren writes.
The practice of wabi-sabi reminds us that, even as we mourn the loss of seasons, waters, plants, and animals in the era of climate change, beauty will reveal itself if we allow it—and seek it.
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