A Wabi Sabi Moment

Dear Diary,

This is the time of year when the Rubeckia are passing and normally I would be dead heading things but I leave a lot of these flowers just like this because the birds, especially the Gold Finch, love the seeds.  They might not be 'pretty' in the traditional sense but I get a lot of satisfaction from seeing them like this.

Wabi Sabi is a Japanese aesthetic which prizes the imperfect.  It sees beauty in decay.  I see happy birds and more Rubeckia come next summer.  Leaving these seed heads is probably why my garden is flooded with the sunny yellow flowers every year!

We are entering the time when the landscape is embracing the inevitable.  The trees are teaching us the beauty of letting go.  Strangely, it is a lesson we have to learn every year it seems.  It is so tempting to want to hang onto these mild days of late summer but by allowing ourselves to embrace the turning of the year we are more likely to accept our own "turning".