Walking with awareness is a wonderful way to relate to this world in which we currently find ourselves. Paying attention to what we encounter involves engaging the senses—looking, listening, smelling and sometimes touching or tasting what we come upon as we wander through this impermanent world.

At times, we may find ourselves faced with something that expresses the fragile nature of life and the certainty of its ultimate conclusion, while also conveying a sense of austere and simple beauty. Now we are walking in wabi-sabi awareness.

As described on Wikipedia, “In traditional Japanese aesthetics, wabi-sabi centers on the acceptance of transience and imperfection. It is often described as the appreciation of beauty that is ‘imperfect, impermanent and incomplete.’”

There are endless expressions of this aesthetic in the world, offering abundant opportunities to practice appreciation for beauty in all its forms and acceptance of the imperfection and impermanence of our own lives. 

The poet William Carlos Williams, who practiced medicine in Rutherford, NJ, is known for his “The Red Wheelbarrow,” a spare and precise depiction of the wabi-sabi aesthetic. Read the poem at www.poets.org/poem/red-wheelbarrow.