Day 21

Day 21: Real Time
Day One: 21 Day Complaint Free Journey


Every morning I read from a variety of books that motivate and challenge me in some way. One of my favorite authors is Sarah Ban Breathnach, and I’m currently Romancing the Ordinary with her as dawn rises each day.

Although I’ve read this book before, I noticed something new this time. The Japanese concept of wabi-sabi, or relishing the imperfections in life and ourselves. I have heard this term before, but never even wondered what it meant.

Now, however, as I struggle through each day trying to refrain from griping and grousing, wabi-sabi seems like the perfect framework for this journey.

By complaining, aren’t we setting ourselves in front of the world as perfect, the all-knowing arbiter of all that unfolds in front of us every day? WE know how things should be done, how others should behave, therefore, we have the right to set them all straight….right?

And then I read about wabi-sabi.

“A Japanese sensibility that reveres the art of imperfection, as well as the paradox of the inevitability of mistakes, is known as wabi-sabi. Unlike feng shui, this state of mind requires only a shift in attitude—critical to complimentary—instead of furniture,” Ban Breathnach says in the book.

Critical to complimentary. Yesterday I made it all the way to evening without complaining. And then I fell off the cliff again. The critical cliff, setting myself up as the one who knows, and judges, all for everyone. It was a small slip, and I recognized it as soon as it happened, but the bracelet had to be moved again.

Maybe I can use “Wabi-sabi, wabi-sabi, wabi-sabi” as my new mantra, and accept the imperfections of not only all those around me, but myself as well.