I love this time of year. Even a brief walk in nature is a gift. And yet, have you ever noticed how much of the beauty in nature actually is a specimen of beauty of imperfections.
Beholding an ancient tree. The sheer size of the trunk. Noticing the knots, the shape of the tree that bends its branches in the stormy winds. A tree whose trunk has been split by a bolt of lightning. A tree that shows off the sprouts of new branches to replace the branches that are lost. Bent, assaulted by weather, storms, droughts… we see their beauty, resilience, strength.
So why? When we- or others- are subjected to storms, trials and tribulations… and we gratefully survive, can we not see the beauty of our- and their- resilience, renewed strength, and life.
In “The Beauty of Imperfection”, Marianna Pogosyan, Ph.D. writes,
Despite the Greco-Roman odes to symmetry and perfection, the notion of beauty residing in flaws has also been a part of western philosophy, literature, and aesthetics. Poets have written about life’s inevitable orders to break us all and the resulting strengths that calcify at our broken places (Ernest Hemingway). How the light comes through our cracks (Leonard Cohen). How imperfection inspires the spark of creation and imagination (Jhumpa Lahiri). Even the imperfect physical objects surrounding us can become symbols of our diligence to find meaning. Thinkers such as Kant, for instance, spoke of virtue-centric qualities of objects (or even buildings— how their beauty can be a reflection of the human virtues of those who made them or own them. Perhaps this is why the shabby vest knitted by grandma or the scribbled love letters from our children or the broken seashell from an old friend, can turn into our dearest treasures. Because despite their imperfections, these objects become beacons of our humanity: our ability to feel, to empathize, to connect, to love.
Is it possible to bring lovingkindness and gratitude to ourselves and our experience of each day? Is it possible to bring lovingkindness and gratitude for the world. May we hold the beauty for it all.
The birds they sing, at the break of day
Start again, I heard them say.
Don’t dwell on what has passed away
Or what is yet to be.
Yes, the wars, they will be fought again
The holy dove she will be caught again
Bought, and soul, and bought again
The dove is never free.
Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack, a crack in everything
That’s how the light gets in.
We asked for signs. The signs were sent
The birth betrayed. The marriage spent
Yeah, the widowhood of every government
Signs for all to see.
I can’t run no more, with that lawless crowd
While the killers in high places say their prayers out loud
But they’ve summoned, they’ve summoned up a thundercloud
They’re going to hear from me.
Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack, a crack in everything
That’s how the light gets in.
You can add up the parts; you won’t have the sum
You can strike up the march, there is no drum
Every heart, every heart to love will come
But like a refugee.
Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack, a crack in everything
That’s how the light gets in.
- Leonard Cohen