Wabi-sabi ::

 The art of finding beauty in imperfection and profundity in earthiness, 

of revering authenticity above all.

Characteristics of the wabi-sabi aesthetic include asymmetry, roughness or irregularity, simplicity, economy, austerity, modesty, intimacy and appreciation of the ingenuous integrity of natural objects and processes.

If an object or expression can bring about, within us, a sense of serene melancholy and a spiritual longing, then that object could be said to be wabi-sabi.

Wabi-sabi nurtures all that is authentic by acknowledging three simple realities: nothing lasts, nothing is finished, and nothing is perfect.

Wabi originally referred to the loneliness of living in nature, remote from society, rustic simplicity, freshness or quietness, and can be applied to both natural and human-made objects.

Sabi meant "chill", "lean" or "withered".  It is beauty or serenity that comes with age, when the life of the object and its impermanence are evidenced in its patina and wear, or in any visible repairs.

"Wabi-sabi is everything that today’s sleek, mass-produced, technology-saturated culture isn’t. 

It’s flea markets, not shopping malls; aged wood, not swank floor coverings; one single morning glory, not a dozen red roses. 

Wabi-sabi understands the tender, raw beauty of a gray December landscape and the aching elegance of an abandoned building or shed. It celebrates cracks and crevices and rot and all the other marks that time and weather and use leave behind. 

To discover wabi-sabi is to see the singular beauty
 in something that may first look imperfect"

~Robyn Griggs Lawrence

~j