Wabi-Sabi is a Japanese aesthetic that values the time-worn, the aged, the imperfect. It is a philosophy and a way of accepting and giving up control. Bringing wabi-sabi into your life allows you to make room for daydreams, for accepting a simpler life and for valuing the riches already in your life.
Pollen dust form a leaf shape as it gathers in sprinkler run-off.
A wabi sabi journal is one filled with authentic you, the one that hungers for simplicity, nature, the organic flow of life. Here are a few quotes to help you open your mind to Wabi-Sabi. They make great journal prompts.
You are the person you are when no one is looking.
Anger is only one letter short of danger.
No one can give you abilities. For example, an Olympic athlete works with a trainer to develop her abilities, but the trainer only helps manifest what was inherent all along. Likewise, no one can give you happiness. At most, others simply help manifest the joy that was always within you.
Happiness does not mean ‘absence of problems.’ There has never been a life free from problems. It is not the presence of problems, but how we tackle them that determines the quality of our lives.
A yellow dividing line wears away on a bike trail.
Blind faith is no faith
One does not win by making others lose.
–All quotes from “Open Your Mind, Open Your Life.” edited by Taro Gold
–Image from Still in the Stream, a site reflecting on Wabi-Sabi in nature.
–-Quinn McDonald teaches “Wabi-Sabi Art Journaling” and is presently updating the course. She’s thinking about making ink from ashes of burned hope.
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