Wabi Sabi is kind of like the Hoky Poky

That's what it's all about!

Last night was our High Fiber Diet meeting and the discussion was all about the Japanese Garden Show. We usually have this show/sale in July at the Portland Japanese Garden, but this year it has been moved to September, which made me feel like I had tons of time to get things ready. Last night I realized that it isn't all that far off, so today I hustled around and made this little piece.

The theme is "Wabi Sabi" which is a concept we all seem to be struggling to wrap our minds around. Gerrie's idea is hilarious, but a very loose interpretation! Wikipedia says Wabi Sabi "represents a comprehensive Japanese world view or aesthetic centred on the acceptance of transience. The phrase comes from the two words wabi and sabi. The aesthetic is sometimes described as one of beauty that is "imperfect, impermanent, and incomplete"

They go on to quote someone named Andrew Juniper: "if an object or expression can bring about, within us, a sense of serene melancholy and a spiritual longing, then that object could be said to be wabi-sabi." I like the way that sounds, but I still am not sure whether my bird's nest quilt is Wabi Sabi.

I really like birds' nests. We have a lot of birds around our house and they build nests up in the eaves and on the porch pillars. When Ray is cleaning up in the spring and finds the old nests he has been putting them out on the porch. Here is the current collection. I love the way they look and how amazingly intricate they are. I'm pretty sure the real nests are Wabi Sabi.

I have a post up on the Ragged cloth cafe blog, where I am a contributor, about the murals of Diego Rivera. You can see it here: http://junomain.wordpress.com/