That’s one of the descriptions of Wabi-Sabi, given in Leonard Koren’s book.
Along with ‘a beauty of things modest and humble’.
And ‘a beauty of things unconventional’.
It is ‘the extinction of a beauty’.
Things “wabi-sabi are usually small and compact, quiet and inward-orientated. They beckon: get close, touch, relate”
I’ve just been on a walk round our neighbourhood. I took these words with me: “Beauty can spontaneously occur at any moment given the proper circumstances, context, or point of view” These photographs and my walk aren’t traditionally wabi-sabi, I used no conventional aesthetic, but instead concentrated on ‘materials that are visibly vulnerable to the effects of weathering and human treatment. They record the sun, wind, rain, heat, and cold in a language of discoloration, rust, tarnish, stain, warping, shrinking, shriveling, and cracking.”
Of course, there’s much more and I’m looking forward to finding more, but it seems to fit in with the work I’ve been doing on this website. To catch, and appreciate, the beauty of a garden at all its different stages.
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