Meg Stewart blends emotional intelligence, resilience, and community leadership to guide others in navigating life’s complexities. Through her work in public health, outdoor education, and advocacy, she empowers individuals and her children to thrive with clarity, purpose, and compassion.
In a world that often values perfection and permanence, the philosophy of Wabi Sabi offers a refreshing perspective: beauty lies in imperfection and impermanence. Through the cracks in a porcelain bowl, the curves of a storm-bent olive branch, or the lines on a weathered face, Wabi Sabi invites us to embrace transformation and the stories etched into time. This article explores how what is seemingly broken holds profound power, urging us to see the cracks in life not as flaws but as openings for possibility, resilience, and quiet beauty.
“Wabi-sabi means treading lightly on the planet and knowing how to appreciate whatever is encountered, no matter how trifling, whenever it is encountered.” – Leonard Koren
Why what’s broken often holds the most power through the lens of wabi sabi
A wind-bent olive branch creaks in the late afternoon sun. Its silvered leaves bear the memory of storms and soft light, its curved trunk a quiet record of time. What it has endured is written into its being, asking not for restoration but for recognition. This is where beauty lives – not in what is flawless, but in what has been transformed.
Beauty in the worn and weathered
This is the essence of Wabi Sabi. It does not glorify the untouched or the pristine. It honors the slow, imperfect unfolding of time, urging us to see beauty in what the modern world might call flawed. The chipped ceramic, the weathered beam, and the human face lined with age are not diminished by what they lack; they are enriched by the stories they hold.
Consider a porcelain bowl, carried in the hands of the family’s matriarch. Its edges, softened and uneven, bear the touch of generations. It is more than an object, it is a vessel of memory, shaped by years of shared meals and quiet mornings. Its cracks, visible and deepened by time, do not take away from its worth. They speak to its survival and to the care it has known.
Wabi Sabi invites us to see the world this way, to notice the quiet resilience of objects and moments shaped by impermanence. A wooden bench lightened by decades of sun does not resist its transformation. It accepts what the elements have made of it. To sit there is to witness the artistry of time itself.
Cracks are openings, not flaws
This way of seeing is not innate. It requires us to slow down and expand our senses, to move beyond cursory observation. Modern thinking, driven by a belief in permanence and progress, often resists such spaces. We are conditioned to fix, replace, and smooth over what we perceive as broken. Wabi Sabi reminds us that impermanence is not a flaw but a natural state, and that beauty exists in the evolving and dissolving forms of the world around us.
The Japanese art of kintsugi beautifully exemplifies this philosophy. When a bowl breaks, its cracks are filled with gold, not to hide them but to highlight them. The repair does not disguise the damage; it transforms it. The bowl becomes more beautiful for having been broken. It carries its story with dignity, reminding us that what is imperfect is not without worth but holds even greater meaning.
Living within the tension of impermanence
Life itself reflects this truth. Like the shifting of seasons, we are always in motion. Each chapter reshapes us, much like the wind reshapes a tree. To resist this movement is to deny the nature of existence, but to embrace it is to understand that nothing is lost in the process of transformation. What fades does not fail. It simply becomes something else.
What lives between the cracks is not brokenness but possibility. These spaces hold the memory of what has passed and the promise of what might come. They are where the universe whispers its quiet truths, reminding us that what is transient and incomplete often holds the greatest meaning.
Seeing ourselves in the cracks
The olive branch bent by the storm does not grow straight again, but it does not need to. Its curves tell a story of resilience. The cracks in a bowl do not erase its function; they make it unique. These moments are not emptiness. They are full of the life that has shaped them.
What if we began to see ourselves this way? Not as projects to perfect, but as beings shaped by time and experience, worthy just as we are. What if we paused to honor the cracks in our lives, the spaces where we have been transformed? These are not failures. They are openings. They are invitations to see ourselves and the world more fully.
Wabi Sabi reminds us that beauty is not about permanence or perfection. It is about presence. It is about noticing what lives between the cracks, what has been softened by time, and what carries the quiet dignity of having lived.
In these spaces, there is no void. There is meaning. There is life.
Read more from Meg Stewart
Meg Stewart, Speaker, Advocate, Author, Wilderness Instructor
Meg Stewart is a New England-based community leader, writer, speaker, and Wilderness Medicine Instructor dedicated to fostering resilience and authentic connection. Rooted in the serene coastal and mountain communities of New England, she brings a thoughtful and intentional approach to cultivating kindness and inclusivity while honoring the quiet strength found in impermanence. As a guide in nature and resilience, a mother, and an adjunct professor at an Ivy League institution, Meg blends her expertise in outdoor education, emotional intelligence, and community-building to inspire others. She believes that community thrives when we create space for meaningful connection, allowing moments to rest gently where they belong. Her work reflects a commitment to guiding others toward strength, understanding, and the enduring beauty of life’s most fleeting moments.
