Good morning, afternoon or evening lovely reader.

I hope this small rant about the beautiful term wabi-sabi and why you should learn to adopt it into your life brings some value to your day.

Wabi-sabi; The art of finding beauty in imperfection and other daily musings

Today I was a bit melancholy.

1. My new kindle screen broke on the plane
2. The stone fell out of my new and only ring in the hostel, nowhere to be found
3. I got my period,
4. I lost my brand-new sunglasses in the park. It took me weeks to find a pair I liked.

These things happen. I also tend to get very attached to objects I like.

But when you are traveling alone you have to keep it together and look for the brighter side of life.

1. It was a beautiful day in Vancouver with the sun shining
2. I still had my hat, cellphone, and camera
3. Kombucha is everywhere here
4. I found an easy, captivating read in Indigo books for under $10

So, life is still good. Mindfulness helps even your moods. Adds pleasant coping mechanisms.

I talk about this in an earlier post 3 Healthy Things To Do When You Are Feeling Low.

Towards the end of my melancholy day, I went for a wander through the Stanley Park rose gardens in Vancouver. I wandered through the gardens sniffing all the roses and taking photos. Observing the breeze on my skin, the divine scents of the roses, and my sunkissed skin.

I want to share with you my musing of the day:

“Even when petals have flaws, all you see is a beautiful flower”

This reminded me of the traditional Japanese aesthetics term ‘wabi-sabi’.

What is Wabi-Sabi?

Wabi-sabi does not have a direct English translation.

Roughly, wabi-sabi refers to finding beauty in imperfection.

English has adopts all kinds of words from other countries. I propose this is one we start to adopt as well. Maybe only then, we will one day truly understand it.

How can we use ‘Wabi-Sabi’ in our own lives?

Last week I was talking to a friend about what it means to get older. One thing we agreed on is that you learn to accept your flaws. You realize no-one else really cares.

Everyone is too self-absorbed with their own shit to notice your cellulite, slightly frizzy hair or your dress not being perfect.

There is a beautiful story in Elizabeth Gilbert’s book Big Magic where she quotes a story from an old friend of hers;

“She said: “We all spend our twenties and thirties trying so hard to be perfect, because we’re so worried about what people will think of us. Then we get into our forties and fifties, and we finally start to be free, because we decide that we don’t give a damn what anyone thinks of us. But you won’t be completely free until you reach your sixties and seventies, when you finally realize this liberating truth—nobody was ever thinking about you, anyhow.â€

Imagine what we can all accomplish if we can adopt this wisdom in our twenties?

At 27 and I try to remind myself of this regularly. I have spent much too much time in my youth worried about what other people think.

When I could have spent all that thinking time on something more productive! Imagine where I would be now. But there is no point in looking at the past and daydreaming.

Focus on the future. On accepting your flaws and not caring what other people think now!

Anyway, those were today’s musings. I hope you enjoyed it.