Sunday, March 20, 2011

Wabi Sabi


This is what I'm made to do ...
Originally uploaded by playzwifstonz

I have embarked on a journey of wabi sabi -- the Japanese-originated perspective of seeing the beauty of things as imperfect, impermanent, and incomplete. It is looking at things as they are and even as they deteriorate ... rusted, weathered, crude, natural.

I spent the better part of the afternoon yesterday walking around my urban neighborhood taking photos.  Prior to reading about wabi-sabi, I did not perceive that there would be anything picture worthy in this historic throwback, littered with garbage and riddled with decay.
On the contrary, I soon discovered; beauty was abound. In the oddest and unlikeliest of places. This is because the lenses I normally look out of have been re-focused, not to mention that the view has shifted, now zooming in on what is real, what is here, what is in its natural state of "what it is".

Much to my surprise, each new sight of something worn, something deteriorated became increasingly more gorgeous to the eye, a rush coarsing through my veins as I let myself drop deeply into the heartbeat of Life. As I bent down to capture a badly rusted piece of metal, a man walked by and shot me a disapproving look, as if I was picking through garbage. I couldn't stop smiling inside.

The more profound discovery, however, did not come until today. As I reflected on yesterday's experience while I did some light chores around my apartment today, I became aware of the ease and flow of my tasks and how they didn't have the usual urgent, pressured qualities of past cleaning frenzies. What arose in this moment was that my wabi-sabi experience brought me directly in relationship with reality as it is -- no mission or efforting or desire to change anything. And then it hit me like a ton of bricks: my former obsessive straightening and cleaning was my attempt at stopping the progression of Life. Something out of place, something that I deemed to be unkept or not up to par with my standard of aesthetics was to be dealt with, controlled, even eliminated. This disallowance of things being able to be exactly as they are has been the way I have tried to manage relationships and situations for the better part of my life. To try to control the course of something changing was my desperate clinging to the known while avoiding the terror of the unknown. I was halting Life rather than being in the flow of Life.

Who knew that rusty, broken down stuff would open up a whole world of pulsating, life-giving treasures right before my eyes ?

Wabi fuckin sabi.

Awesome.

2 comments:

  1. Hey Girl. WHere you been. How have you been? This is a great post. LOve it.. You are such a poet, but then you knew that! Would love to partake of the photos. Just goes to show you that art is everywhere.

    matter of fact, I saw a show on cable recently called "everything is art".. so true.

    take care, more later, Keri

    alwayscurtsywhenyousneeze.com

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi again. Thanks for the interesting addition to the despicable people list! I will add them for sure. Once again, you're right on, lady.

    take it easy. Keri

    alwayscurtsywhenyousneeze.com

    ReplyDelete