A Wabi-Sabi Thanksgiving
Sometimes you see a word once, and then you see it again and again in various places. Wabi-sabi is one of those words, and it seems like a perfect one to trot out today. I’ve read a bit about it, and my understanding of the concept probably doesn’t do it justice. But I’ll place it out there just in case it speaks to you the same way it speaks to me.
The concept centers on the idea of finding beauty in the “imperfect.” Or, as Utne Reader explains:
Wabi-sabi reminds us that we are all transient beings on this planet—that our bodies, as well as the material world around us, are in the process of returning to dust. Nature’s cycles of growth, decay, and erosion are embodied in frayed edges, rust, liver spots. Through wabi-sabi, we learn to embrace both the glory and the melancholy found in these marks of passing time.
Thanksgiving is a way I mark time. It’s not the holiday itself, but I’m usually with family, and it makes me fretful because I can see time passing. The kids don’t look like they did five Thanksgivings ago. The world feels different from it did ten Thanksgivings ago. But I also love this day that makes me a little melancholy. Hours spent with people I love, eating the side dishes and too much dessert.
That’s beautiful, too.
I hope you are having a great day doing whatever you do to celebrate (or not celebrate) Thanksgiving.
2 comments
Happy Thanksgiving!
And yes, I find this concept applies to me more and more as I get older.
I totally get you. The generations thing on top of time passing. There’s a time of life where there are additions, and there’s a time of life where there are subtractions. I know it’s a natural cycle, but I still can’t help but be sad for the subtractions (and, truth be told in some years, the absence of additions).