Beauty in What Passes

A common thought is that beauty should be perfect and lasting. Japanese aesthetics offers another. Mono no aware, roughly “the pathos of things,” is the gentle sadness and delight we feel because something will pass: cherry blossoms that fall within days, a low evening light.

Wabi-sabi carries the idea into objects. A bowl with an uneven glaze, or one mended with gold along its cracks (kintsugi), is prized because its marks show time and use. Flaws are not hidden; they become part of the beauty.

The idea has a practical side. If we wait for perfect and permanent things, we miss most of what is beautiful. Attending to what is passing can make ordinary hours feel brighter.

The mended bowl

Emi’s favorite bowl falls and breaks in three places. She nearly throws it out, then remembers a craftsman who repairs bowls with gold lacquer along each crack.

Mended, the bowl is uneven and marked, and it is lovelier than before. She also starts watching the blossoms outside her window more closely this spring. They will be gone in a week, and that is part of why she stays to look.

Try this today Choose something that will change soon, such as light or a flower, and spend two minutes looking.