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Week 25: Shibusa
Oct. 20th, 2014 05:23 pmThe seven elements of shibusa are Simplicity, Implicity, Modesty, Silence, Naturalness, Everydayness, and Imperfection.
Living with depression is learning to live while paddling around an ocean filled with sharks while holding raw steak. Now imagine that depressed person trying to learn the meaning of Shibusa too.
We strive for simplicity. But rarely find it. Our lives are broken by rocky roads of stress and strife.
We long to have the ability to live with implicity. To see the carving inside the stone. To see the beauty within the ugly. But we can't seem to ever get past the raw materials to build something beautiful.
Modesty would be nice. To live a life within our means. To be happy with what we're given and to make the best of a situation. Unfortunately we often face ourselves at moments of panic or breakdown, when our emotions are not modest and controlled.
Silence. Oh, how we long for blessed silence in our minds.
What is natural for the non-depression sufferer often feels like the worst awkwardness for those with depression. Like dancing on marbles. Painful and awkward.
Everydayness. The ability to live in the moment. To take joy in every day that has been granted to you. That is one thing we just cannot have. We are constantly waiting for the other shoe to drop.
And Imperfection. Oh, yes....we know this one all too well we think. But do we? Do we really know what imperfection is, or do we allow our selfish disease to make us think we're familiar with it?
The concept of Imperfection in Shibusa is not to find the imperfections and fix them or despise them. It instead teaches us that we should explore them, when we do find them, and allow them to become part of the bigger picture of fullness and beauty.
The depressed person sees imperfection as a flaw in character, a negative thing, to be despised, to be covered with make up, manipulated with surgeries, or twisted out of it's natural shape into something pleasing. The depressed person has a very difficult time seeing imperfection as anything but evil and to be removed.
The person with eyes of Shibusa sees imperfection as an element of the whole, necessary and even wanted. For without imperfections, without ugliness, how would we know true beauty when we see it?
I wasn't born with eyes of Shibusa. Mine are pale, blue, and occasionally filled with useless tears of self rage. But I have moments of clarity, when the blue of my eyes can see in other ways.
Living with depression is learning to live while paddling around an ocean filled with sharks while holding raw steak. Now imagine that depressed person trying to learn the meaning of Shibusa too.
We strive for simplicity. But rarely find it. Our lives are broken by rocky roads of stress and strife.
We long to have the ability to live with implicity. To see the carving inside the stone. To see the beauty within the ugly. But we can't seem to ever get past the raw materials to build something beautiful.
Modesty would be nice. To live a life within our means. To be happy with what we're given and to make the best of a situation. Unfortunately we often face ourselves at moments of panic or breakdown, when our emotions are not modest and controlled.
Silence. Oh, how we long for blessed silence in our minds.
What is natural for the non-depression sufferer often feels like the worst awkwardness for those with depression. Like dancing on marbles. Painful and awkward.
Everydayness. The ability to live in the moment. To take joy in every day that has been granted to you. That is one thing we just cannot have. We are constantly waiting for the other shoe to drop.
And Imperfection. Oh, yes....we know this one all too well we think. But do we? Do we really know what imperfection is, or do we allow our selfish disease to make us think we're familiar with it?
The concept of Imperfection in Shibusa is not to find the imperfections and fix them or despise them. It instead teaches us that we should explore them, when we do find them, and allow them to become part of the bigger picture of fullness and beauty.
The depressed person sees imperfection as a flaw in character, a negative thing, to be despised, to be covered with make up, manipulated with surgeries, or twisted out of it's natural shape into something pleasing. The depressed person has a very difficult time seeing imperfection as anything but evil and to be removed.
The person with eyes of Shibusa sees imperfection as an element of the whole, necessary and even wanted. For without imperfections, without ugliness, how would we know true beauty when we see it?
I wasn't born with eyes of Shibusa. Mine are pale, blue, and occasionally filled with useless tears of self rage. But I have moments of clarity, when the blue of my eyes can see in other ways.
