Experiments in Gratitude

4:19pm

Moving through landscapes into new cities and experiences I’ve had many small lives and vast deaths.  Not even a year ago I left my first self-appointed home (Boulder) a city I’d dreamed of living in since the age of 13.  We move because stagnation doesn’t suit our biology and circle back because patterns do.  In this new tall city (Chicago) I remind myself that I have had the perfect moments.

I was introduced to the concept of Wabi-Sabi in Selah Saterstrom’s “Dreaming Language” class in the summer of 2009. It’s filed next to an image of wilting Irises in a saturated corner of my mind. The idea, as it was presented to me, is to appreciate the transient nature of life. All things are predisposed to their own cycles of creation, peek and eventual decomposition.  It’s in this slow erosion of perfection that we can observe beauty.  Through the art of Wabi-Sabi we escalate the asymmetrical, the modest and objects/compositions that pull forward emotions of longing.