From the #showyourwork files …
I’m living by the peso and here’s my packing list: a pocket notebook for poetry notes on the go, a morning pages journal, an unlined pocket notebook for small sketches and pithy lightning bolts, a bigger sketchbook, and new artist pens and graphite pencils. Three pocket cameras with different capabilities and uses.
I also brought two books to read/re-read and ponder: Wabi-Sabi for Artists, Designers, Poets & Philosophers by Leonard Koren, and The Bhagavad Gita translated by Eknath Easwaran.
A standout line from each of those books has ignited seaside contemplation.
From The Bhagavad Gita 4:34:
“Approach those who have realized the purpose of life and question them with reverence and devotion; they will instruct you in this wisdom.”
This verse calls to mind the many thoughtful people who have participated in Humanitou conversations, sharing their insights across yoga, humanness and creativity.
Each Humanitou exchange contains answers to something greater than the questions I ask. It is part of why I do it, and a lot of why I’m grateful to those who open their hearts and share through it.
An example of wabi-sabi in nature. A macro photograph of fungus growing on a tree trunk.
From Wabi-Sabi:
“Wabi-sabi is ambivalent about separating beauty from non-beauty or ugliness. The beauty of wabi-sabi is, in one respect, the condition of coming to terms with what you consider ugly. … Beauty is thus an altered state of consciousness, an extraordinary moment of poetry and grace.”
Koren is referring to physical matters in the world, e.g., a 100-year-old farmhouse we say has rustic character, or a decaying piece of fruit in which we see the art of life.
But I read that quote from a psycho-emotional place, wondering: What do you consider in yourself and others to be ugliness, rather than beauty?
If you shine a light on it and shift the way you see that ugliness, what poetry of you do you find?
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