Wabi-Sabi is a Japanese philosophy based on reverence towards asymmetry, irregularity, simplicity, austerity, modesty, intimacy, impermanence and appreciation of objects and their natural processes. Wabi-Sabi is something that brings about a sense of spiritual longing and beauty. It also refers to a certain quirkiness that adds uniqueness and elegance. In other words, “flawed-beauty” is considered divine.
We in the western world have lost our sense of Wabi-Sabi. We acquire, accumulate, and collect without reverence, intimacy, or romance. We’ve become over-loaded and detached. Not only with physical objects in our lives but our lives itself. Wabi-Sabi is missing in our days and moments. We rush through without savor, inhale the day’s events, exhale onto the next. Bigger, better, more. We over-schedule, over-load and over-kill. Our minds always somewhere else.So what do we do? Unfortunately, there is no list to Wabi-Sabi your life. That would be anti-Wabi-Sabi. But I will list a few ways to keep wabi-Sabi out of your life.
- Buy anything new and upcoming because it’s the next big thing!
- Worry about your possessions so much that your furniture is more comfortable than your guests.
- Strive for perfection over sacred.
- Live publicly instead of privately.
- Cling to permanence.
- Paperwork over leadership. Contracts over handshakes.
- Quantity over quality.
- Factory-made over hand-made
- Rules over creativity.
- Superficial over reverence.