The beauty of imperfection
Embracing “Wabi-Sabi”
In a world that champions the pristine and the flawless, there remains an unfathomable beauty in the irregularity of cracked surfaces, asymmetrical lines, and slightly off-kilter angles. These are aberrations that we must learn to not just notice, but also to celebrate.
This is a declaration of my love affair with Wabi-Sabi, a worldview that sees beauty in imperfection.
I think my first run-in with wabi-sabi was as a young kid, when I broke a boxful of glass bangles, and my creative mom helped me fashion a kaleidoscope with them and a few odds and ends she salvaged from around the house. She helped me see that what could have meant just disaster to me could be fashioned into something beautiful. That was her way. She was “crafty”, and came up with the most beautiful toys and gifts from scraps.
Afternoon
- Pavithra
Perfection, a sip,
Green tea, a white cup.
Spilled poetry waits.
Perfection — the word conjures the image of a gem — desired, sometimes to a fault, for its shimmering allure and the flawlessness it promises. Glossy magazines and digital media regale us with the message: “Perfect is desirable; less is unacceptable.” We’re conditioned to equate flaws with failure, as if being flawed is the antithesis of being deserving. Note the grading of diamonds: from flawless to internally flawed… with a whole set of in-betweens, that are deemed acceptable, based on your budget.
The pervasiveness of this ideal is crippling. It’s not simply a social construct; it’s a mandate that dictates our relationships, our careers, and our very sense of self-worth. It’s an ideal that’s as elusive as it is intoxicating, drawing us towards an ever-receding horizon where our best is never good enough, and our flaws loom large, taunting our pursuit of perfection.
Wabi Sabi
- Pavithra
The broken words form
Phrases that parse the silence
Imperfect thought cloudsEmbracing Wabi-Sabi is about far more than simply shrugging off the pursuit of perfection; it’s a conscious redefinition of our collective aesthetic.
It urges us to look beyond the pristine and into the subtle, often-overlooked beauty of the weathered, the worn, and the well-loved. It’s a call to arms to re-evaluate the cultural disdain for the imperfect and find the stories that their context provides.
But why should we embrace Wabi-Sabi? Unlike its critical cousin, the Wabi-Sabi philosophy is not a book of rules, but rather a lens or a new perspective that magnifies life’s authenticity by honoring the value of the impermanent, the defective, and the incomplete. There’s something innately human in its narrative, something that connects deeply to the transitory and cyclical nature of existence. Every flaw is a testament to endurance, to a history witnessed, and to a life lived.
This shift in perception can be strikingly profound. It liberates us from our obsessive pursuit of the unattainable, offering a reprieve from the constant comparisons and the draining race to outdo an imaginary foe.
To embrace Wabi-Sabi is to completely redefine the metrics of our grading system — from a linear construct of passing and failing to one of narrative and onward to a gradual self-acceptance.
My journey with Wabi-Sabi has been, in retrospect, a journey of the soul. I think I used to measure my worth by impossible standards. The result was a persistent undercurrent of dissatisfaction. It was when I started learning about Wabi-Sabi, I realized that the pursuit of perfection was unnecessary; the beauty of the real transcended the images of perfection.
I began to cherish my old jacket with its frayed cuffs — a companion of countless adventures — over a pristine, but soulless, new one.
I started to revel in the imperfections of the handmade, seeing not defects but a unique testament to human effort and the inevitable quirks of craftsmanship.
The more I embraced these imperfections, the more “of the world” I felt. It was as if through my acceptance of these ‘flaws’ I was reevaluating and redefining my relationship with the world around me.
The mental health benefits of embracing imperfection are backed by research. Accepting that we, along with the world around us, are continually unfolding, changing, and inherently incomplete, lessens the burden of self-directed hostility. It’s a mental detox from the relentless pursuit of perfection that can cause or exacerbate stress, anxiety, and depression.
By adopting a Wabi-Sabi outlook, which de-stigmatizes the flawed, we tap into a wellspring of compassion, not just towards ourselves, but to others as well. We find deeper connections, appreciate the ebb and flow of life, and are less perturbed by the inevitable twists and turns it brings. The pursuit of perfection, after all, is the pursuit of permanence, a fallacy given the inexorable passage of time.
Embracing Wabi-Sabi is not a renouncing of the pursuit of excellence but rather an elevation of the human endeavor. It’s a dedication to quality and meaning that transcends the limits of flawless execution. It’s an anthem to the courage of standing bare in a world fixated on veneers.
This embrace doesn’t call for grand gestures or radical lifestyle changes. It begins with small, conscious acts — noticing the chipped paint on walls and seeing the history it represents, or pausing to appreciate the irregular shape of a stone along a trail. It’s in these quiet moments that the truth of Wabi-Sabi comes to life — that in the imperfect, we find not ugliness, but profound beauty.
So, take off the armor of your expectations, and step into a softer light where you can learn to embrace the shadows. Pay attention to what you saw as imperfect and you may just find there’s nothing more beautiful than that.
Embracing Wabi-Sabi is not resignation, it’s liberation. It’s freedom from the chains of the perfect and the unattainable, and a step towards living a life with content and compassion.
Keeping the Account
- Pavithra
We’re all a little bit broken
‘Cause that’s the price we pay
We grate off every ideal notion
In living from day to day.
I think this is love- I've found it!
Here- exchange my token!
But... hearts were meant to be broken…
That's a truth, one must admit.
But forswear it not, or you're doomed!
Your forebears will bear witness:
'Tis a blooming heart of darkness,
Beleaguering, until you're entombed.
Hold not that heart so close
No more can you pretend.
'Tis time you paid for what you chose
The lonely start of an end.
And when a-calling comes the Reaper
Make sure there's not one bit
Of loving left in that bloody ticker
Use every last kernel forthwith!
Ring it all in, cos there's no price they'll pay
And you won't live to see another day
Each crack, each jagged piece
Each memory that brings you down to your knees
Cos when you're walking through the infernal realm
You're no master, you're no longer at the helm
It's your day of reckoning and the tally has begun
'Tis too late to repent, or do what you left undone
And as they count the pieces
Light glinting off each edge
Each hurting haunting memory
From the depths they'll dredge
You'll see the paths you took,
that long winding road
And the ones you forsook,
and when you broke the code.
Cos that's how we got broken
That's why we pay the price
We grate off those ideal notions
With our unseeing eyes.