WABI-SABI: IMPERFECTION AND BROKENNESS TURN TO BEAUTY – Part 3/3

Do you know that in 2023, the global anti-aging products market was estimated to be worth about 47 billion U.S. dollars? Th information is from Statista.com. It looks like a numerous people are desperated to look younger. The questions we can ask is: ” Isn’t growing old the nature state of life? Isn’t ageing with time a beauty?”

I love the song: “The Older I get” by Alan Jackson. The whole song depicts the beauty of getting older.

‘The older I get. The more I think
You only get a minute, better live while you’re in it ‘Cause it’s gone in a blink
And the older I get. The truer it is: It’s the people you love, not the money and stuff. That makes you rich.

And if they found a fountain of youth. I wouldn’t drink a drop and that’s the truth. Funny how it feels I’m just getting to my best years yet

The older I get. The fewer friends I have. But you don’t need a lot when the ones that you got, have always got your back. And the older I get. The better I am. At knowing when to give. And when to just not give a damn

And I don’t mind all the lines. From all the times I’ve laughed and cried. Souvenirs and little signs of the life I’ve lived

The older I get. The longer I pray. I don’t know why, I guess that I’ve got more to say
And the older I get. The more thankful I feel. For the life I’ve had and all the life I’m living still’.”

Dear friend, I am getting older year by year and each new year I feel thankful for the gift of life and all lessons I have been through. I imagine if my life has no struggles, difficulties, challenges, sadness, brokenness, imperfection, it should be a boring life ever which I never want to be there. All of these are parts of our life and they make us whole.

No palm tree is perfectly shaped, yet we marvel at the beauty with which it stands. No sea shell is perfectly drawn, yet we marvel at the beauty with which it curves. Accept and appreciate yourself as you are today, in your natural state, just like you would a tree in the forest, a flower in the garden, or a seashell by the shore. You are the entirety of you. You are whole. And you are beautiful. – Omar Itani.

Wabi-sabi philosophy reminds us: “Appreciate the beauty of all things, especially the great beauty that hides beneath the surface of what seems to be broken.” It is an art called Kintsugi – golden scars. Many time in life, we suffered with many physical and emotional scars. Let us redrawn our scars with gold. It will demonstrate the gifts of fortitude, wisdom, resilience, forgiveness and love through the passage of time.