W abi sabi?Īn overstuffed reading chair. A long-fingered icicle drips outside my window. Fall’s dried leaves still cling to branches, though it is bitter cold outside. The weather can change quickly here in Minnesota. Taking a cue from the cat, I look around at my surroundings through a “wabi sabi” sort of lens. Wabi Sabi looks around afresh and sees her world in haiku, Feel … He moved slowly but gracefully,Īs if he were dancing, and he handled his things as if they were gold, The old monkey’s haiku reply is confusing: The cat and I find the wise, old monkey making tea. The wise, old monkey is somewhere in the forest, the story says. The owner draws in a breath through her teeth and says, “That’s hard to explain.” As the cat owner pauses, my eyes slide to the bottom of the page and find poetry, one in Japanese, one in English:Īnd in that silence, Wabi Sabi the cat begins an adventure to find the meaning of her name-and I go along with the same curiosity. On the story’s first page, strangers meet Wabi Sabi the cat and ask what “wabi sabi” means. In the same moment, I’m introduced to Ed Young’s gorgeous and mysterious mixed media illustrations created from “wabi sabi” lost and found imperfect objects. The book opens vertically, as if I were reading traditional Japanese. The first extraordinary experience I encounter reading Wabi Sabi, is the immediacy of the Japanese world.
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