Beth Kempton > Quotes

“Put simply, wabi sabi gives you permission to be yourself. It encourages you to do your best but not make yourself ill in pursuit of an unattainable goal of perfection. It gently motions you to relax, slow down and enjoy your life. And it shows you that beauty can be found in the most unlikely of places, making every day a doorway to delight.”
― Beth Kempton, Wabi Sabi: Japanese Wisdom for a Perfectly Imperfect Life

“Wabi is about finding beauty in simplicity, and a spiritual richness and serenity in detaching from the material world. Sabi is more concerned with the passage of time, with the way that all things grow and decay and how ageing alters the visual nature of those things. It’s less about what we see, and more about how we see.”
― Beth Kempton, Wabi Sabi: Japanese Wisdom for a Perfectly Imperfect Life

“Freedom wanders in the landscape of the mind, and nourishes the deepest yearnings of the soul.”
― Beth Kempton, Freedom Seeker: Live More. Worry Less. Do What You Love.

“Wabi sabi teaches us to be content with less in a way that feels like more. Less stuff, more soul. Less hustle, more ease. Less chaos, more calm. Less mass consumption and more unique creation. Less complexity, more clarity. Less judgment, more forgiveness. Less resistence, more resilience. Less bravado, more truth. Less control, more surrender. Less head, more heart.”
― Beth Kempton, Wabi Sabi: Japanese Wisdom for a Perfectly Imperfect Life

“Try to go a whole seven days without having to control everything, without stressing when things don't work out as you thought they would or should. As you do this, any time you feel the need to take charge, try to relax out of it, just to see what happens. Look for the good that happened precisely because things didn't work out the way you thought they would or should.

And take your time. There really is no desperate hurry. When we constantly pursue perfection, our life speeds up. We make hasty decisions and snap judgments. Wabi sabi offers an opportunity to pause, reflect, check in with yourself and move from there. You'll likely feel relived, and make better choices.”
― Beth Kempton, Wabi Sabi: Japanese Wisdom for a Perfectly Imperfect Life

“Wabi sabi is an intuitive response to beauty that reflects the true nature of life. Wabi sabi is an acceptance and appreciation of the impermanent, imperfect, and incomplete nature of everything.”
― Beth Kempton, Wabi Sabi: Japanese Wisdom for a Perfectly Imperfect Life

“We have to stop telling ourselves that everyone is
watching, waiting for us to fail. They really aren’t.”
― Beth Kempton, Wabi Sabi: Japanese Wisdom for a Perfectly Imperfect Life

“We are living in a time of brain-hacking algorithms, pop-up propaganda and information everywhere. From the moment we wake up, to the time we stumble into bed, we are fed messages about what we should look like, wear, eat and buy, how much we should be earning, who we should love and how we should parent.”
― Beth Kempton, Wabi Sabi: Japanese Wisdom for a Perfectly Imperfect Life

“Incense fills the air. It smells like the color purple, in a way I cannot explain.”
― Beth Kempton, Wabi Sabi: Japanese Wisdom for a Perfectly Imperfect Life

“You can see change happening right there. The bamboo is growing all the time, and is also sensitive to its dynamic environment. It’s firmly rooted but flexible. When the wind blows, the bamboo doesn’t resist; it lets go and moves with it. And still the forest grows. Think of the buildings in this earthquake-prone country. The ones that survive the shaking are those that can move when the trembling begins.”
― Beth Kempton, Wabi Sabi: Japanese Wisdom for a Perfectly Imperfect Life

“Your heart knows there is a greater version of your life available to you.”
― Beth Kempton, Freedom Seeker: Live More. Worry Less. Do What You Love.

“A wabi sabi inspired world view opens up a space for love. Just as we're not perfect, neither is anyone else. What difference would it make if you saw others with your heart instead of seeing and judging with your eyes and mind? If you let go of the judgement and frustration and accepted who they are, without trying to change them, if you don't like what you find, that's useful information and you can choose what to do next. But just maybe that acceptance will give you a perspective and remind you of what really matters.”
― Beth Kempton, Wabi Sabi: Japanese Wisdom for a Perfectly Imperfect Life

“Sometimes we have spent so long in the cage that it feels safer to be trapped inside.”
― Beth Kempton, Freedom Seeker: Live More. Worry Less. Do What You Love.

“Be grateful for even the tiniest of miracles because they add up to this thing called life.”
― Beth Kempton, Freedom Seeker: Live More. Worry Less. Do What You Love.

“Should we look at the spring blossoms only in full flower, or the moon only when cloudless and clear?”
― Beth Kempton, Wabi Sabi: Japanese Wisdom for a Perfectly Imperfect Life

“It’s dangerous to be grateful for the cage that traps you.”
― Beth Kempton, Freedom Seeker: Live More. Worry Less. Do What You Love.

“It bears repeating: there is no single way to live your life; there is no single career path; there is no perfect way to build your career. There is only evolving it, and it’s up to you if you choose to do that in a way that brings you delight.”
― Beth Kempton, Wabi Sabi: Japanese Wisdom for a Perfectly Imperfect Life

“Having something is not always better than not having it.”
― Beth Kempton, Freedom Seeker: Live More. Worry Less. Do What You Love.

“I decided to visit people instead of places.”
― Beth Kempton, Wabi Sabi: Japanese Wisdom for a Perfectly Imperfect Life

“If you’re trapped in a cage, you don’t want to start being grateful for the protection of the bars. You need to be grateful that there are gaps in between them so you can see what’s on the other side.”
― Beth Kempton, Freedom Seeker: Live More. Worry Less. Do What You Love.

“Should we look at the spring blossoms only in full flower or the moon when cloudless and clear? Beauty is not only evident in the joyous, the loud, or the obvious.

Wabi implies a stillness with an air of rising above the mundane. It's an acceptance of reality and an insight that comes with that. It allows us to realize that whatever our situation, there is beauty hiding somewhere... The feeling generated by recognizing the beauty found in simplicity... A sense of quiet contentment found away from the trappings of a materialistic world.”
― Beth Kempton, Wabi Sabi: Japanese Wisdom for a Perfectly Imperfect Life

“The flowers keep on blooming, wheter or not you make mistakes.”
― Beth Kempton, Wabi Sabi: Japanese Wisdom for a Perfectly Imperfect Life

“taking inspiration from other cultures and interpreting it in the context of our own lives that we excavate the wisdom we most need.”
― Beth Kempton, Wabi Sabi: Japanese Wisdom for a Perfectly Imperfect Life

“The forest does not care what your hair looks like. The mountains don’t move for any job title. The rivers keep running regardless of your social media following, your salary or your popularity. The flowers keep on blooming, whether or not you make mistakes. Nature just is, and welcomes you, just as you are.”
― Beth Kempton, Wabi Sabi: Japanese Wisdom for a Perfectly Imperfect Life

“I carried with me the question “What is culture?” Food culture, fashion culture, Japanese culture . . . I wanted to understand this idea more. When people use the term “culture” they refer to a certain lifestyle followed by a number of people over a period of time—something we create by the way we live. So I decided to visit people instead of places.”
― Beth Kempton, Wabi Sabi: Japanese Wisdom for a Perfectly Imperfect Life

“On the surface of Japanese beauty there is taste (the visual); beneath it is flavor (the experience).”
― Beth Kempton, Wabi Sabi: Japanese Wisdom for a Perfectly Imperfect Life

“The Japanese see the seasons as signposts, visible reminders of our own natural rhytms.
In modern life, these often get disrupted, as we extend our days with strong artificial light, interrupt our sensitive biorhytms with blue lights from our electronic devices and push ourselves to be highly productive just because it's another weekday. We push on, regardless of whether our body is trying to tell us it's time to hibernate, or get outside for some summer sunshine - and then we wonder why we get sick.”
― Beth Kempton, Wabi Sabi: Japanese Wisdom for a Perfectly Imperfect Life

“Liberty is about being free and is granted by laws and conventions and government permissions. Freedom is about feeling free, and the only permission you need for that is your own.”
― Beth Kempton, Freedom Seeker: Live More. Worry Less. Do What You Love.

“In finding the courage and confidence to escape our cages and shine, we help others do the same.”
― Beth Kempton, Freedom Seeker: Live More. Worry Less. Do What You Love.

“The impermanence of things is a fundamental law of nature. Things come and they go. Whatever things are like at the moment, they won’t always be like that. They won’t ‘always’ be like anything. There is ebb and flow in the river of life.”
― Beth Kempton, We Are In This Together: Finding hope and opportunity in the depths of adversity