Wabi-Sabi Me!

I try not to repost other people's work but sometimes they just put things so clearly I have to share.

If you haven't visited House of Fifty's blog you should (really, I mean that. Stop everything you are doing and go there right now). It is an online magazine that is a compendium of great bloggers and ideas that are floating around. They have quite the team.


But let's get back to the point of this post. As Pauline Willes from The English Organizer puts it:

... I learned that wabi-sabi is sometimes described as beauty that is imperfect, impermanent and incomplete. It nurtures all that is authentic by acknowledging three simple realities: nothing lasts, nothing is finished, and nothing is perfect. The distinction is made between this aesthetic and the Greek values of beauty and perfection, often upheld in the West.

As I sit here contemplating repainting my bathroom cabinet again this really struck a chord with me. Things change, we change and that's ok. You don't have to live with things you don't like just because you just redid them. That paint on the wall doesn't have to stay the same color for the rest of your life. I remember a few months back reading an article in House Beautiful (I don't remember the exact one) in which the interviewee said they had painted their dining room 5 times in the last 5 months. At the time I thought it was excessive (and I still think it is a bit) but why not? Who says you have to pick a color and stick with it forever?  For all of us out there who really love decorating I think this is a great validation to the fact that we will never be "done" with our houses. But isn't that what makes it fun?

You can read the whole article here and I highly suggest it. While you're there, click through the summer magazine. It is a great way to waste away an afternoon.

Cheers!