The Japanese concept of Wabi Sabi is defined in Wikipedia as: ” A comprehensive  Japanese world view or aesthetic centered on the acceptance of transience and imperfection. The aesthetic is sometimes described as one of beauty that is “imperfect, impermanent, and incomplete”. 

I look at as ‘perfection in imperfection’. Kind of like life.  I see that everything is in perfect alignment; by Divine Design.  When I do that,  it is easier to accept the unraveling that occurs in my own life. It can look like a change of plans, just when I think I have everything mapped out. It can present as needing to meet my son whose car had a major meltdown, nearly forty minutes South of  where I was, to have AAA tow it to his mechanic and then immediately zipping back North to take someone else to an appointment and then back home to meet a writing deadline. It shows up as if it was a whirlwind of activity that sometimes sets me off-kilter, but nowhere near as much as it had in my over the top busy-buzzy days. I am much more go-with-the -flow and this new pace and attitude suits me well.

I am not a perfectionist by nature, but at times, an aspect of my alter-ego that I call ‘Perfectionista’ does peek her snooty nose with glasses slid down the end of them, around a corner and points out all of the raggedy edges of my life and those of others as well. As a grammar geek, I tend to notice misspellings, poor grammar and misplaced punctuation. Sometimes I will be reading a book and wonder if the editor needed glasses, since several errors were evident. My rule about that is not to tell the author, since there isn’t a whole lot to be done about it after the fact. It goes along with my belief that it’s ok to tell someone that their zipper is down and the ‘barn door is open,’ or if they have spinach between their teeth, but not if they have a run in their stocking. The first two they can do something to rectify, the third they can’t. When I go back and look at some of my own writing, I sometimes cringe when I see that I have missed a few boo boos as well.

This past week, my  thriving artist friend Paul Dengler who is a Forrest Gump impersonator, as well as a musician and faux finish painter, has been re-doing a  room in my house that is to become my office/haven. Once it is complete,  I need not work at my dining room table as I am at the moment. Before he took brush to wall, I pointed out spots on which drywall was bumpy and uneven from the last time the room was patched up and painted by someone else. He assured me that with the painting style he would be doing, I wouldn’t notice them anymore. Sure enough, when he showed me his handiwork tonight, they were nearly indistinguishable from the rest of the room. I knew they were there. He knew they were there and we laughed at the perfect imperfection of their presence.