I just finished the 3rd draft of my "Decorating nature" book. Diane Ackerman wrote me back (very exciting) and said she couldn't write the introduction 'cause she has her own book to write. (not as exciting.) Anyway, the book can be read here:
One of the new pieces in it is this one below and below the image is the text that accompanies it.
I read a story years ago. Some kinda Zen parable about an art student of some sort
who had been given an assignment to arrange pebbles on a table top.
Each time she thought she had nailed it, the master told her:
“No. Try again.”
All morning long and through lunch she worked and presented her work to the master.
Each time she thought she had arranged the stones perfectly, the master’s reply was the same.
Finally, about to try again, she snapped. Deciding that she would never be able to get them perfect,
she threw the stones down on the table and walked away. As she reached the door, she heard
the master’s voice. He stood regarding the latest arrangement and had said just one word:
“Perfect.”
I work hard to get my arrangements “just so”. Not too studied, not too haphazard,
not too this, not too that. Just right. This arrangement just happened. I had to stop myself
from mucking it up with my taste and my ego and my self-consiousness. And just let it be.
Perfect.
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And here's the latest amazing thought that's come into my lately damaged life: the Japanese art form of kintsugi celebrates the cracks and imperfections of the valuable object in our lives (and by extension ourselves) by making repairs in precious metal that both celebrates and repairs the damage. For more on this gorgeous art form, click on the links below.
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Somehow these two things seem related. But maybe I'm just a little too imperfect to exactly know how.
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