Wabi Sabi Life is a carefully curated serving of the imperfectly beautiful and unconventional from a Western Buddhist with a love of Japanese culture and aesthetics. Please consider supporting me by becoming a paid subscriber for only £1 a week. Access more in-depth content, audio meditations, and the whole archive.
This year’s journey
This year I have had hundreds of new subscribers to Wabi Sabi Life. In fact, it’s doubled this year. I have people reading from as far afield at Brazil, Chile, India, Pakistan, Australia, Alaska, Canada and the US as well as many people from the UK.
I am so grateful to all of you for joining me. I am particularly grateful to my paid subscribers. It really helps to free up my time to do this.
If you look at the archive you will see I reflected on everything from Buddhism to book reviews, Japanese aesthetics and culture to art and architecture, music to meditation, haiku to philosophy.
My most popular post this year were:
But I also received consistently high numbers of reads and shares from the exploration of the Six Perfections in particular the post on patience.
Speaking of perfection or imperfection…
As someone who values imperfection (which is at the heart of wabi sabi), I’d like to give a mention to Thomas Curran’s book The Perfection Trap: the power of good enough in a world that always wants more. And here is a very poignant quote:
Perfectionists overwork to the point of burn out, and they also, at the same time, do everything in their power - including complete withdrawal of effort - to avoid the unbearable shame of almost certain defeat. That’s not the ticket to success. On the contrary, perfectionism hampers success while generating a great deal of distress and self-doubt. The answer to perfectionism’s success paradox lies not in dialling it back a bit and striving for excellence. It lies in learning to embrace the inevitability of set backs, failures and things not going quite as planned.
If I could write a simple manifesto it would echo this: embrace the inevitability of set backs, failures and things not going quite as planned. In other words embrace the beautiful imperfection of life.
What’s next?
I came across this quote from Laura Hartenberger in her excellent essay about What AI teaches us about good writing.
Anyone who’s published knows that readership is a rare gift. Reading is work — valuable work — but like writing, it requires exertion and takes time away from other tasks. Many of us already feel saturated with content; we consume so much information through screens that our daily attention spans feel fragile and limited. There’s a certain respect we hold for writers who are careful not to publish too much, who honour their readers enough to self-censor and share only what’s really worth our attention.
Reading and writing both need time. We need to be discerning.
I like to give considered time and reflection to my writing. I know your attention is valuable so I want to continue bringing you something worth reading, audio meditations and more.
So next year, there will be four different offerings each month (one each week).
A monthly themed newsletter - some themes I am exploring include hope, doubt, harmony and wonder.
A regular audio reflection or meditation podcast (for paid subscribers)
A creative prompt (for paid subscribers), something to unleash your self awareness and self expression.
A monthly ‘Scintilla’ newsletter - a round up of what’s on my cultural radar
If you are not already a paid subscriber, I hope this offering will tempt you to be so. It makes a world of difference to me.
“Writing is more than simply a sequence of words — it’s synonymous with thought - Laura Hartenberger
In fact it’s more than thought it encapsulates who we are, what our values are, what we believe in, our emotional world, our concerns, our hopes, fears, losses and dreams.
So, dear readers I will continue to write what inspires me, what intrigues me, what challenges and changes me and I hope you will continue to read.
About me: I am a Western Buddhist in the Triratna tradition and have been practising since 1986. I have a love and admiration for the simplicity and beauty of Japanese culture and aesthetics which appeals to my zen minded being. I am also a mindfulness and movement teacher, writer, and creative health professional . Life - with all its beautiful imperfections and wonderful messiness - is my practice.
I’ve really enjoyed your work this year. Thank you. I’m looking forward to reading more about the imperfections of life, which are definitely what makes it interesting.