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Category Archives: Wabi-Sabi
Simply Imperfect.
Wabi-Sabi Weekend: Cleaning As Moving Meditation
On Wabi-Sabi Weekends, I post excerpts from my book, Simply Imperfect: Revisiting the Wabi-Sabi House.
“Put your hands to work and your heart to God.” — Shaker saying
An ancient Tea master described wabisuki (a taste for all things wabi) as “putting one’s whole heart to cleaning and repeating it several times.” The Dalai Lama says that cleansing your environment is a ritual means of cleansing your mind.
Cleaning is a wabi practice. Every … Continue reading
Wabi-Sabi Weekend: Stop Fiddling with the Flowers
On Wabi-Sabi Weekends, I post excerpts from my book, Simply Imperfect: Revisiting the Wabi-Sabi House.
“If you fiddle this way and that with the flowers and consequently they wither, that will be no benefit. It is the same with a person’s life.”—Sen Soshitsu XV
Wabi-sabi flowers (chabana) aren’t arranged. They’re placed, in their most natural form, into unpretentious vessels.
Nagarie, a simple, austere style of arranging flowers that literally translates as “throw in,” evolved alongside tea ceremony in the … Continue reading
Wabi-Sabi Weekend: Long Winter Naps
Excerpted from Simply Imperfect: Revisiting the Wabi-Sabi House
Walk in every season. Try to find contentment in winter’s dim afternoons as deep as you find in June’s exuberance. You have to try a little harder to find the beauty in November’s pale, low light and barren fields, but consider how garish a blooming rosebush would be against autumnal muddy browns. Feel the earth signaling it’s time to go within. After summertime’s manic energy, appreciate the relief. (Rolling with the … Continue reading