Garden of Delights: W

Writing my way through the A-to-Z blogging challenge, I’ve tasked myself with leading you on a meandering tour of the virtual garden of delights and curiosities and thoughts that make up my world – all through the lens of unusual, obscure, or simply charming-to-me words.

W is for…

wabi-sabi:  the discovery of beauty within the imperfections of life

Within this Japanese aesthetic, life and art are viewed as beautiful not because they are perfect and eternal but rather because they are imperfect and transient.

Beauty is important to me.  I always feel a little bit strange when I say that, because I wonder if I’ll be misunderstood.  I’m concerned people will think I’m saying physical appearances are important to me.  But that’s not what I mean at all.

Beauty is something I’ve been studying from a spiritual perspective for years, particularly through the work of Connie Kaplan, author of The Invisible Garment. I love this opening definition she offers:

“Beauty is the principle at work when the inner qualities of an object show outwardly. We cannot fully understand that which hides itself. We can only begin to understand and appreciate something when it lets light shine through it (or reflect off it) in order to extend itself outward.”

It is my belief that we are all beautiful, and that indeed the world is overwhelmingly beautiful for those with eyes to see.

I believe we give a gift to the things in our life by seeing them – that it is our eyes witnessing them that creates some kind of magic that allows them to shine even more brightly because we are consciously receiving the gift they are giving by their very being.   Each one of us has a part in making the world a more and more beautiful place, and that’s what I mean when I say beauty is important to me.  A world that’s filled with harmony and loving-kindness; appreciation and celebration; equality and goodwill.

There’s always so much we can learn from the natural world, and I think especially about beauty. We humans are always complicating things, and in doing so, distorting alignment. You can’t argue with the is-ness of a tree, or a flower, or a cat, or a bee. They are what they are, and they aren’t trying to bend themselves into being something different, something less or something more, in order to conform or be noticed, or any of the myriad of reasons humans pretzel themselves out of themselves.

I particularly like this admonishment from astrologer/philosopher Rob Brezsny:

“If you want people to know who you really are and savor you for your unique beauty, you must be honest with those people. You must also develop enough skill to express your core truths with.”

I think that perhaps is the entire point of our journey here – to develop enough skill to express our core truths. It’s an endlessly evolving process as we refine and gain clarity, releasing all that isn’t us, so we are perfectly aligned with who we truly are. Everything on this Earth is temporary, everything is imperfect, and none of us has time to ignore what beauty surrounds us, gifting itself to us, in every moment.

It is my belief that we all need to be ourselves full out.  I would put that call out to everyone:  Be You to Full.  Beautiful.

I like the idea of treating my beautiful life as the container through which to explore fully the beautiful things I’m surrounded by. I’m always inviting you, through this blog, to come peek into my life, and I’d love if you’d share something you find beautiful and let me peek into your life as well.