Perfectly imperfect.

Wabi-sabi (侘び寂び) is a Japanese philosophy that centers around accepting the imperfect, incomplete, and ever changing nature all around us. I was reminded of this concept while listening to a book about Japan. More recently, it came up while I talked with an artist in NC. She lost nearly everything after Hurricane Helene wiped out her studio. Her art had always been inspired by the Japanese way of life. We got to talking about what wabi-sabi means, especially in the context of rebuilding one’s life. The thing we realized is, it’s a bit hard to articulate. And maybe that's the point. 

Wabi-sabi combines two words. Wabi is about embracing the real over the artificial, even when something doesn’t turn out the way we hoped. It releases the pressure to achieve perfection, or even appear that way. Sabi is about seeing the beauty in things falling apart in some way. Character and inner life are revealed as things, including people, age and change.

Wabi-sabi reminds us that we are always in a state of becoming. When life throws us difficult times, we can both feel heartache or sadness and find joy and beauty that is created as a result. It’s in the change where we become who we are meant to be. This is true beauty.

Each of us is both incomplete, and completely more than enough just as we are, right now. Embrace the ebbs and flows, all that is imperfect. Remember wabi-sabi, and that it’s all part of the gift of being alive.