Anna was a brilliant therapist, an artist, a writer of prose and poetry, an inspired gardener, a political activist and a loving and supportive friend. Once again I am reminded of the impermanence of all things and beings and the importance of not putting things off, thinking I always have time...later.
I dedicate the following to Anna, with gratitude for her being here for a time.
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I have been reading and thinking about the Japanese concept of Wabi-Sabi. One definition I've come up with is:
Wabi-sabi is the Japanese art of finding beauty in imperfection and profundity in nature; of accepting natural cycles. It's simple, slow, and uncluttered and reveres authenticity above all. Wabi-sabi is a philosophy, an aesthetic, a way of seeing, and a way of life. Both objects in nature and those created by humans gain interest as they corrode, age, fade, and exist in a state of imperfection and impermanence.
This is a brief definition, and I don't claim to be an expert in wabi-sabi--it defies being pinned down; wabi-sabi honors ambiguity and incompletion.
This morning I took my camera and went around the house and porch to see if I could use my eyes, and the camera to find elements that embodied wabi-sabi to me.
Here is what I found:
Pottery shards in a broken bowl on a table stained with paint
A peeling fragment of my 103 year old house's original wallpaper
My partner made this raku (pit-fired) bowl
This vase belonged to my mother and has been cracked since I can remember
My great-grandmother's teapot, now stained and dented
This bamboo grows its own way
This book is just like one I had in the 60's. It describes the wabi-sabi of the tea ceremony. I chose the oldest and most faded of the copies available at the bookstore. Also the most interesting and evocative to me.
A chipped and stained flowerpot in the grass and dirt
Clematis drapes over a broken section of the concrete porch railing
My father's brush bottle with his brushes and my stained scissors
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