Wabi Sabi for your Soul

"You will always have problems, and you will always have joyful times, but once wabi sabi becomes a part of your awareness, you will have perspective..." ~Richard Powell, Wabi Sabi Simple

In a week where the world comes to terms with a likely increase in violence, we offer this ezine as a reminder that as each one of us wakes up to the essence of who we are, the world wakes up to the peace that passes all understanding. Richard Powell is a friend of C3 and a writer on Wabi Sabi. We offer his words to you as a gift of peace in a time of war.

A Dangerous Beauty

There is a dangerous kind of beauty purpling people’s experience these days. Like a bruise on the skin of culture it looks unsightly but actually it reveals a healing process. Like indigo or violet, it is the hardest beauty to see, there on the edge of the beauty-rainbow. It is called wabi sabi. It is a kind of beauty people have recognized and named for three thousand years, but because it is dangerous to commerce, and because it is dangerous to competition, it remains on the margins, a cell-mate with artists and the monks of poverty.

Where can you see it? It exists in worn objects that reveal natural patterns, bring out patina, or develop character or authentic individuality. It exists in the places where weather has smoothed stone, or wood, or whole sides of mountains, and it exists in something as ordinary as a woman’s handbag where the sun has deepened the colors of the bamboo handle, where friction has softened the canvas. This bag is owned by a wabi woman named is Trisha.

Trisha first experienced wabi sabi in her teens, when the sight of an Oyster Catcher searching for crustaceans in the mud flats near her home stopped her in mid sentence. The hinging movement of the bird’s white legs against the chocolate mud and then the dark mud clinging to the bird’s sunset-orange bill magnified its color, made it more precious to her than her mother’s antique fluted vase.

Later that year she sat in the rain on a wet log in front of a derelict car. She had come upon the car in the forest, far from any sign of a road. The red rust on the curved fenders made it seem as if the car was painted with honey.

As a young woman, her husband away on a trip, she raked scarlet leaves in the yard alone, her breath hung in the air as she worked, and she noticed that she felt both lonely and deeply content.

When her first child was an infant, her aunt invited her to spend a week in a remote cabin on a Gulf Island. One night, nursing her baby in a wicker chair by the window, looking out on the dark sound, she felt a strong conviction that her baby and the moonlight sparkling off wavelets in the bay was all she needed to be happy.

In her forties, that baby grown and away at camp, she walked with her husband through a field of newly planted potatoes, the turned soil steaming in the morning sun, smelling rich and fertile, reminding her that her childbearing years were coming to an end. Yet standing there with her husband as he wondered aloud if the effort to plant the field was worth it, she turned to him and said, “even if we never harvest them, this moment alone, makes it all worth while.”

Trisha has become a connoisseur of wabi sabi. She looks for the moments that reveal it. It has taught her that she cannot hold onto God’s gifts, be they wavelets in a bay or a baby at her breast. She has learned that fleeting glimpses of mystery are more powerful than plainly visible monuments erected by those who seek permanence in stone and history. Wabi sabi has shown her that nothing is perfect, nothing lasts, and nothing is finished. She can live with this realization because even though everything changes around her, within the every changing kaleidoscope is a constant elegance, a constant emergence of beauty.

By cultivating her ability to see this beauty Trisha looks past the distractions of affluence. She sees things others miss, sees deeply into loss and recovery. Now that she has integrated wabi sabi into her thoughts it provides a clarity that allows her to see everything for what it is without feeling any need to repair or arrest the effects of time, experience, or age. She understands in a deep way the words of Jesus, “…store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal; for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” By treasuring the beauty of things in their impermanence, she has been able to let them go, let them be. Jesus continued, “The eye is the lamp of the body; so then if your eye is clear, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is clouded, your whole body will be full of darkness.” Wabi sabi can cleanse your sight with its strange light, can ignite your vision, turn your eyes into glowing lanterns to illuminate you deep inside. Imagine if you saw this beauty without effort; imagine if you saw it where others didn’t, in the downtrodden, the sick, the crippled. Could the reins of power steer you then?

Bio:
Richard R. Powell is the author of Wabi Sabi Simple and Wabi Sabi for Writers. He works for Island Crisis Cares Society, a Christian organization providing emergency and crisis housing on Vancouver Island, BC Canada.

Read more of Richard Powell's writing here.

Check out Wabi Sabi Simple

ImageCreate beauty.
Value imperfection.
Live deeply.

Wabi sabi is an ancient Japanese aesthetic that emphasizes the value of simple things as a path to harmony. In Wabi Sabi Simple, author Richard R. Powell explains this intriguing Eastern philosophy in easy-to-understand terms to help you find peace and truth throughout nature and apply it to all facets of your life -- at work, at home, and in your relationships.

Be the change...fundraising dinner!

"Be the change you wish to see in the world." ~Gandhi

Join us Saturday, January 20, at 6:00 p.m. for a celebration of the diversity and talent of our community. This fundraising celebration dinner will be held in the C3/CCC Parlour and will include an incredible spread of international food featuring Mexican, Thai, Indian, and Greek; plus there will be fabulous entertainment and an auction.

Tickets are $100 per person, space is limited, and all proceeds go to the church. Tickets will be sold in the narthex following Sunday’s gathering, or you may purchase tickets by calling the church office at 842-1985. Tickets must be purchased by Monday, January 15.

Center for Religion and Life presents: Harry T. Cook brunch and lecture

We are pleased to welcome Harry T. Cook, an Episcopal minister, journalist and author. Cook is a member of the faculty of the International Institute for Secular Humanist Judaism. He has been rector of St. Andrew’s Church in the Detroit area since 1987. He was also a religion editor and later a columnist dealing weekly with ethics and public policy for the Detroit Free Press. Cook is currently working on a book with the tentative title “Jesus Without God: Ethics & Agnosticism in the New Testament.”

* Sunday, February 11
* “Christianity and Empire: Thank You for Nothing Constantine!” by Harry T. Cook
* 11:30 a.m. - 1:30 p.m.
* Christ Community Church Parlour
* Cost: $15 (includes brunch)

You may purchase tickets at Christ Community Church or by mailing a check to:
Christ Community Church
Harry T. Cook Event
225 E. Exchange St.
Spring Lake, MI 49456

For more information check out Harry T. Cook's website.

Sacred Contract workshop offered at C3/CCC

C3/CCC will be offering a four-week workshop based on Caroline Myss’s book, Sacred Contracts, on four consecutive Thursdays beginning January 18.

Classes will be held from 7:30 to 9:00 p.m. and led by Margret Bazany, a Shamanic Practitioner and Reiki Master. Bazany will help participants understand what Myss refers to in her book as one's archetype. Bazany explains, "Archetypes are energy patterns with which we are born, the architects of our lives. Learning about these psychological and emotional patterns can lead us to a greater understanding of our purporse in life."

The cost for the series is $40. Please email allison@christ-community.net if you have questions regarding this enlightening workshop!

Download this Sunday's Bulletin

This Sunday at C3/CCC we will be exploring themes from Carolyn Myss's popular book, Sacred Contracts.

We hope you will be able to join us on Sunday.

Enjoy this week's blessing:

Sing, feast, dance, make music and love, all in My presence, for Mine is the ecstasy of the spirit and Mine also is joy on earth. For my law is love unto all beings... Behold, I am the mother of all things and my love is poured out upon the earth. ~Starhawk

Download this week's bulletin

The Institute of Progressive Christianity presents: Science and Religion 101

This great new class will be team taught by Ian Lawton and Howard Van Till. The focus of this class will incorporate both a scientific and a spiritual exploration of evolution, as we look both to where we have come from and to where we are heading. The class begins Wednesday, January 31, at 7:30 p.m. and will run for three consecutive weeks.

The cost of the class is $10 per session.

Did You Miss Bishop Spong's trip to Western Michigan?

If you are looking for a new way to experience Christmas you will not want this incredible DVD set as Bishop Spong uncovers the magic beneath the myths of the traditional Christmas story.

Christmas can be a time of great confusion for many Christians. Just as children inevitably question if Santa Claus could really travel around the whole world in one night on a sleigh led by flying reindeer; similarly our adult intellect questions how a baby could be born from a virgin, if God guides us using stars, and whether heavenly angels bring messages to us.

In "The Magic of Myth" Bishop Spong leads us to see how just as children move beyond the literal story of Santa Claus to a view of Santa as a personification of the spirit of joy and giving; similarly in looking beyond the literal Christmas story we are opened to new and expanding views of Jesus.

This incredible 4-disc DVD set includes:

Lecture 1: "Separating Myth from Reality" + Q & A
Lecture 2: "A Progressive Perspective on Christmas" + Q & A
Sunday Sermon: "The Four Shady Ladies" + Q & A
PLUS: An exclusive casual conversation with Bishop Spong

Order your "Magic of Myth" DVD package for just $40!

You Can Help Sustain the Evolution of Progressive Christianity

Christ Community Church is an independent church supported solely by members and friends of the community.

C3/CCC is a unique community offering a message of progressive Christianity to those who seek an alternative to church as usual.

Your donation will help this evolving community continue to be an active voice for progressive Christianity in our world today.

It is very simple to donate to C3/Christ Community Church, through the Network For Good.

The Network For Good is a secure and safe online donations collection center for non-profit organizations. Please consider giving today!

Thank you, we couldn't do this work without you!

Donate to Christ Community Church now

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