Wabi Sabi

I have just spent the last few days at the US Social Forum here in Atlanta. It has been a wonderful week of edgy, grass roots, progressive folks descending on Atlanta. I was pushed and pulled in different directions and am leaving the week with much to research and ponder. One of the most interesting things I learned was during a workshop about Household Economic Justice. The presenter talked about this principle in Japanese architecture called Wabi Sabi. He described it as having three principles

-everything changes
-nothing is perfect
-nothing is finished

He used this to give people a way to examine their lives and working toward something good without beating themselves up. I looked it up on the Internet today and here are a few more interesting thoughts on Wabi Sabi

From Wikipedia

Wabi Sabi is a comprehensive Japanese world view or aesthetic centred on the acceptance of transience. The aesthetic is sometimes described as one of beauty that is "imperfect, impermanent, and incomplete"

nobleharbor.com
Pared down to its barest essence, wabi-sabi is the Japanese art of finding beauty in imperfection and profundity in nature, of accepting the natural cycle of growth, decay, and death. It's simple, slow, and uncluttered-and it reveres authenticity above all. It celebrates cracks and crevices and all the other marks that time, weather, and loving use leave behind.