Wabi Sabi [wah-bee sah-bee] is a Japanese concept of life and art, in which beauty exists in weathered, asymmetrical, incomplete, imperfect and impermanent things. As I grow older, my body is becoming all of the above, so Wabi Sabi becomes my new kemo sahbee [faithful friend]. I am learning to think of myself as a work of art, not because of my flaws, but because of them. Really a concept!
I already have the beginning of this way Wabi Sabi sees her own - for many years I have been learning to face my emotional imperfections and accept that I am completely imperfect. I am motivated by a painful shame and a belief that makes me fundamentally flawed and needs perfection in order to be loved. The pursuit of perfection made the cork in my life eventually cause me to burst under pressure. One night I went to bed and asked for higher power. "What do I have to do in my life?" When I woke up, I heard these words in my mind. "All you have to do is love yourself." This made me start learning how to love. Own, oh and all. I am still on the road. I am learning to love my own imperfect self.
One of my favorite words is to help me reshape my flawed self. This is Ashleigh Brilliant's aphorism, "I may not be perfect, but part of me is great!" I have said this to myself many times over the years. Let me feel better about myself. Now, in the spirit of Wabi Sabi, I tell myself, "I may not be perfect, but my imperfection is to make me unique and beautiful!" Krishnamurti said that our soul comes from the same paper. But our uniqueness is that the creases formed in the paper come from the folding and presentation of our life experiences.
This Wabi Sabi view is helping me face and embrace the physical turmoil of the past few years. Even though I was careful to keep the perfect wit, Bell's paralysis made my face permanently skewed, gum disease disappeared on my cheekbones, cataracts cast a shadow on my eyes, appendectomy removed my appendix rupture, cancer I swallowed my uterus [not to mention the addition of wrinkles and white hair, oh!].
I have to give up attachment to the perfect thing. I chose to look and accept that I have become the beauty of this cracked, weathered ship. A little boy said to his grandmother, "Oh, Gramma, there is such a beautiful pattern on your face." I am learning how to look at myself, just like a little boy sees his grandmother.
Realize that you are beautiful and have a lot of liberation, not because of our shortcomings, but because of them. The excitement is that we see ourselves not being broken, but being broken - better accepting the rich light and love around us. Leonard Cohen responded to this sentiment in his song Anthem:
Ringing the bell that still rings
from
Forget your perfect product.
from
Everything has cracks
from
This is how the lights come in.
Finally, I want to leave you a typical Wabi Sabi story of a broken pot:
Every day, a water drinker sends two cans that are balanced on the yoke to his master's house on his shoulders. One of the cans broke and leaked there. This makes this pot very sad. "I am too imperfect. Why do you want to keep me?" The water drinker replied: "I planted flowers along the path, and the water you sprinkle nourishes those flowers. Because of you, the beautiful flowers growing there give me The master brings great joy. Your shortcomings bring joy and beauty."
We tell ourselves that the story about our lives is always our choice. It can be a choked story, or a Wabi Sabi story. We can choose to see ourselves as a madman or water the flowers on our path of life. I chose to think of my life as a perfect piece of art, cracks and all!
What is your Wabi Sabi story? Can you see your flaws, imperfections and challenges how to make your life a beautiful piece of art?
Copyright 2011 Janet Jacobson
Orignal From: Transforming the whimper story into the Wabi Sabi story: the perfect imperfect art
No comments:
Post a Comment