If I’ve read one thing about wabi sabi, I’ve read a hundred in the past five or six years. It’s a popular concept found in many forms of Japanese art.

Oh, you want to know what it is?

Beauty in imperfection

Well, an official definition is that wabi-sabi is a world view centered on the acceptance of transience and finding the beauty in imperfection… appreciating what is “imperfect, impermanent, and incomplete” in nature.

Like the repaired cup in the image above. It’s beautiful in its imperfection. Patches and all.

What a concept for our perfection-oriented society!

We don’t deal well with flaws. We are impatient with those of others and beat ourselves up at times for our own.

Ideals for aging

Wabi refers to “worn and regal richness.”

Sabi means the serenity that comes with age.

What if –as we aged–we appreciated the worn and regal richness of others (and ourselves?)  What if we only grew more serene with age?

What if, what if, what if.…

Healing old wounds

This subject came up today as I pondered my own impatience with another’s imperfections. Their lack of healing from the wounds of childhood.

While I have compassion for the reluctance of those wounds to heal, perhaps, I thought, I should have more patience with the person.

At my core I believe we have an obligation to heal those old wounds. To patch them up.

I have no issue with the uneven patches over those injuries.

But if they’re still gaping wounds in our senior years… if they still impact us and our interactions with others?

That’s when I think there is a problem.

Worn and maybe beat up

Don’t get me wrong. I know life’s beat me up more than a little. And sure, I’m worn and old.

But I’ve done my best to patch myself up over the years.  And even though from time to time the patches wear a little thin, I’m usually aware that I need…a bit of a course correction…or someone close to me helps me see that I do.

Today was one of those days when I saw clearly how much healing a loved one still has to do…and how little time there is left for them to do it.

And how little will they have for the healing.

(Oh and by the way: kemo sabe means “faithful friend.” It was what Tonto called the Lone Ranger in the old TV show of the 1960s. I just liked the rhyme.)