Wabi sabi:
cultivating suppleness in a tautly polarized world
September 15, 2024
IN PERSON ONLY
Hosted by New Thought Spirit, North Sea, Southampton, New York
North Sea Community Association House
130 Noyac Road, Southampton NY 11968
We are living in an increasingly polarized world, which is further accentuated in this moment because of the upcoming elections in the United States. The problem with polarization is that no matter which side of the polarity we find ourselves on, it becomes rigid, hide-bound, dogmatic.
The author Sophie Strand calls it the "Newtonian polemic" of our times - where rather than opening up to what is new, surprising, or does not quite fit in with our position, we use our knowledge and intellect as a weapon to prove the other side as wrong, immature, and out of touch with reality.
“What if we instead softened around what is arising in us during this election season, and during this time in general - full of so much othering, so many wars, vast differences in wealth, and an impending climate collapse?
What if instead of proving ourselves right, we actually listened?
What if we allowed ourselves to be wrong sometimes?”
Practicing wabi sabi, the Japanese aesthetic that focuses on the beauty in what is imperfect, impermanent and incomplete, could be one way we train ourselves to move away from the rigidity of perfection and "correctness." Instead, we can learn to flow, to dance with what is arising in the moment - knowing that the only permanent thing in this embodied existence of ours is change! As the author Octavia Butler so poignantly declares:
"All that you touch, You Change. All that you Change, Changes you. The only lasting truth Is Change."
We remember that wabi sabi is not intrinsic to an experience or an event. Rather, it is a state of mind - a way of being. Wabi sabi allows us to revere and rejoice in the moment, while simultaneously holding the knowledge that whatever it is, it will pass, and soon.
May we become masters of wabi sabi, so we can celebrate our life at this moment, while also holding the beauty and humility that comes from accepting our own fragility, our own brokenness, and the pathos that lies in intentionally turning towards what is lost, or will soon be lost.
We hope you will join us for this gathering.