I first learned of the Japanese concept of Wabi Sabi many years ago. It is a tool for contemplation, or a philosophy of life, that finds beauty in things that are impermanent, imperfect, and incomplete. In other words, it’s the notion that patina; wear and tear; chips, cracks, and fissures; assymetry; flaws; and defects actually make things more interesting.
I immediately loved this concept of Wabi Sabi, and I felt almost relieved to read about it. It was like discovering that there was a word for the way I’d always thought about life.
You see, a Wabi Sabi house is not a sleek loft with a-line furniture and stainless steel appliances. It’s clean, but it’s comfortable, and it might be full of lopsided ceramics, handmade art, knitted blankets, quilts, and weathered antiques, a little bit like my house.
And a Wabi-Sabi person is not perfectly made up with gleaming white teeth, manicured nails, and tailored clothes. She is content with who she is, and she enjoys a simple life stripped of what is unnecessary. And that’s exactly what I’ve always wanted.
It’s useful for me to remember my fondness for the concept of Wabi Sabi on days like today when I finally woke up (for the tenth time in a few hours) for good at six a.m. with my fussy seventeen-month old and that phrase “sleeping through the night” that parenting experts seem to like to bandy about made me want to laugh maniacally.
Or, when I glance around my home office, which I always envisioned would be a tidy, peaceful sanctuary of sorts, and see the fifty or so books that my son dutifully removed from the shelves and spread across the floor alongside his trucks, Legos, and blocks.
Yes, this life, with work and home-life woven together, feels a little cobbled together sometimes, a little taped up at the seams, and I’m quite sure there are some cracks lurking here and there.
But that’s exactly the way I always wanted it to be.
This post is for Steady Mom’s 30 Minute Blog Challenge.