The Patina of Age

As I was walking through my flower gardens yesterday, I was disappointed to find that many of the summer flowers were winding down.  My first thought was that it wasn't very pretty; heat, lack of rain, and time had taken their toll.  Perennials that had produced lavish displays of color all summer were finished blooming, leaving brittle dry stems and faded flowers that were going to seed.  But as I slowed down and really looked, I began to see that a transformation had taken place.  They were still beautiful; I just had to look at them differently to see it.

The colors are muted, with more variation in tone than before...

grays and browns are mixed with soft mauves and peaches...

 ...with petals dried and curled until they look like crazy dancers in a windstorm.

They embody the Japanese aesthetic quality called wabi-sabi. Put in simplest terms:

 

Wabi is the beauty that comes from the right kind of imperfection,

and Sabi is the beauty that comes from age.

And aging means changing...

 

...it's a different kind of beauty...

 

 but beautiful, still.  I can see that now.

Some Thoughts on Change

My last post was about the new year, the challenge of change, and how frightening it can be.  In regards to that, here are some thoughts by people who express themselves far better than I.  To accompany them I've chosen some photos I took at fall's end, when the earth speaks of the past, the changes under way, and whispers hints of the future...

The object of a new year is not that we should have a new year.  It is that we should have a new soul.  -G. K. Chesterton 

It's not so much that we're afraid of change or so in love with the old ways, but it's that place in between that we fear...It's like being between trapezes.  It's Linus when his blanket is in the dryer.  There's nothing to hold on to.  -Marilyn Ferguson

 The important thing is this: To be able at any moment to sacrifice what we are for what we could become.  -Charles DuBois

Every great dream begins with a dreamer.  Always remember, you have within you the strength, the patience, and the passion to reach for the stars to change the world.  -Harriet Tubman

There came a time when the risk to remain tight in the bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.  -Anais Nin

 
I wanted to change the world.  But I have found that the only thing one can be sure of changing is oneself.  -Aldous Huxley

It takes a lot of courage to release the familiar and seemingly secure, to embrace the new.  But there is no real security in what is no longer meaningful.  There is more security in the adventurous and exciting, for in movement there is life, and in change there is power.  -Alan Cohen

New Year

I'm kind of late on this one, but I had a screw loose, as Whitney pointed out.  I can't say they're any tighter now, but the one on the computer is okay...

You might notice that I left the "Happy" out of the traditional New Year greeting.  Not that I don't want it to be a happy one; I do indeed hope it will be happy, for all of us.  But what I'm really hoping is that it will be new.  Different.  A fresh start; out of that same old rut many of us have been stuck in.  What we need is change.

All around me, I see people facing big, scary changes, the kind no one wants to confront.  So many friends are facing illness, loss of jobs or income, loss of their homes.  These can cause other losses.  We lose self confidence, direction, sense of purpose.  We are lost. 

We wonder, What next?

Believe it or not, this state of uncertainty, of feeling as if the rug has been pulled out from under you, of being totally lost, is a magical place to be.  It is the crossroads, the "between",  the place of potential and new beginnings.  From this point, all things are possible.  According to spiritual principles, only when something is taken away can something new be brought in; a psychic "space" must be cleared in order to bring in new energy.  

Symbolically, there can be no rebirth without going through the death phase.  A shaman receives his/her power by going through a transformation which usually involves a severe illness, an inner experience of being torn apart and put back together in a new and different form.  It is painful; it feels like you will not survive.

In "When Things Fall Apart: Heart Advice for Difficult Times", Pema Chodron writes that she had a sign on her wall which read, "Only to the extent that we expose ourselves over and over to annihilation can that which is indestructible be found in us."  She goes on to say, "Nevertheless, when the bottom falls out and we can't find anything to grasp, it hurts a lot...  When things are shaky and nothing is working, we might realize that we are on the verge of something."

My daughter used to say that without the darkness, we wouldn't see the stars.  May each of us see our own stars.