Day 207 of 365 - Perfectly Imperfect Beauty

Today’s picture is of a rose from one of our front garden areas. Today as we were walking into the house after coming home from church, the beauty of so many blooms in the front gardens struck me and I thought I might find a good subject for today’s picture. If you look at our front, you will find dozens of different species of blooming plants and flowers, but I have always been drawn to these particular roses. There is something about them that makes them my favorite. If you see them, they are not particularly lush. They don’t have a deep striking color. They do not bloom in the full symmetrical way that so many of our roses do, yet I am always drawn to them. As you can see, it looks like a little ink bomb blew up as they were blooming so there are splashes of another color throughout the petals and in some instances, entire petals have taken on this magenta explosion.

As I thought about these flowers and why I like them so much more than the others, I realized it was the fact that they were so incredibly gorgeous, yet they were imperfect. This combination of imperfection and beauty made them stand out among all the perfection of the other flowers. It’s as if beauty shined through the imperfection, or overcame it. I knew there was a concept in Japanese culture that described this, so I looked it up on the web and it is called Wabi-sabi. Wabi-sabi is the quintessential Japanese aesthetic. It is a beauty of things imperfect, impermanent, and incomplete. It is a beauty of things modest and humble. It is a beauty of things unconventional.

It is the blend of beauty and imperfection that I have always found so appealing about so many things in life. I’m sure we could examine the psychological and spiritual reasons why I find this so appealing, but in the end, it doesn’t matter. To me personally, Wabi-Sabi is the highest level of aesthetic, it is why grace exists.

So as we struggle to make our lives better, fuller, happier, etc...may we embrace the beauty of the broken vase fixed by the Master’s hands and apply it to the journey of our own lives.

And so it goes...