Beauty in Stillness

A week ago, my wife and I embarked on a camping holiday. I say embarked because we had not really been camping properly for a few years. We thought it would be fun to have a simple holiday, enjoying nature, quietness and little distraction. We arrived at our campsite which was an idyllic little site on a working farm, that looked out over the fields with picturesque placed bales of hay and a view that followed on to the historic Holy Island.

We somewhat enjoyed the trip, mostly for thinking time, and stillness. A favourite Poem of mine is a Henry-Davies poem, Leisure:

What is this life if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare? —

No time to stand beneath the boughs,
And stare as long as sheep and cows:

No time to see, when woods we pass,
Where squirrels hide their nuts in grass:

No time to see, in broad daylight,
Streams full of stars, like skies at night:

No time to turn at Beauty's glance,
And watch her feet, how they can dance:

No time to wait till her mouth can
Enrich that smile her eyes began?

A poor life this if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.

My wife and I had been rather busy the months previous and didn’t have much time to stop and watch beauty dance. We went on small drives to visit different attractions, and locations, we sat around the fire as the sun set behind us, we lay in the natural dark and talked about life and learning. It was rather a pleasant four days. On one of the days we went to visit the nearby Lindisfarne Island. While walking around the island and taking in the natural beauty therein, we took a scenic walke to the Mead shop. On our way we were distracted by some colourful tapestries. They were part of a project by a lady who had pilgrimaged on St Cuthbert’s way. She used the loom to create a weaving that helped describe her experiences. We had a chance to be part of her next weave.

She explained that she learned about the art of Saori Weaving, she told us the story behind it, making it more appealing to us. Well what appealed to me was the story and the meaning of the work, also the actual weaving (quite therapeutic). I think for my wife it was more to do with the actual weaving. When I returned home I did a bit more researching, so I am going to share a little of the story and give some insights and thoughts on the way. Apologies now if this is just mindless babbling, hopefully it will help someone.

Misao Jo a 57 years old lady, built a loom, and started weaving as a hobby (as you do). One day, while weaving an Obi (a belt for Japanese Kimono) she found an error in her weave and noticed it was making a nice pattern. She showed the “Obi” to a person running a weaving factory in her neighbourhood wanting to know how other people would value her weaving. She was told it was worthless, due to its imperfections, which makes sense.

She began to weave an “Obi” with many “flaws”. It was easy, just like in life it is easier to have flaws that to be perfect all the time. In doing so, she found she could make interesting effects. She finally finished an “Obi”, and it was highly praised by an owner of an “Obi” shop in "Shinsaibashi Street" (an expensive shopping street in Osaka, Japan).

Misao thought the aesthetic quality that made the “Obi” valuable must have derived from something hidden inside herself. She realised that by stepping outside of the norm and being true to herself that she created something unique and meaningful. Misao named her weaving method “SAORI” and started her career as a weaving teacher, due to demand to learn.

The brown bit me, the blue bit Jayne

Saori weaving is a unique form of weaving where you learn basic technique and then you stay true to yourself and let your creativity flow, one of the sayings of Saori weaving is be bold and adventurous. I thought this was quite an interesting saying considering it comes from what I consider to be a refined ritualistic culture, (I’m probably wrong). Each of the pieces of work created from a Saori Loom is to a degree different. It is finding the beauty with lack of intention, staying true to oneself.

I found a connection with the idea of looking at the flow of imperfection that naturally appeared once I sat behind the loom. I weaved my part and added other threads to make my part in the loom the lady was creating. We live in an age where we are often trying to strive for perfection, when in fact all around us there are natural imperfections, there is no uniform pattern for nature.  In Henry-Davies’ poem, he says how poor we are to have no time to stand and stare, to watch nature in all her beauty and fluidity. Jayne and I had been so busy that we had not made time to stop and stare. We sat during our holiday and discussed how we had lost a certain connection to the natural and spiritual world, we had kind of lost self.

Throughout the trip, we found other reminders to stop and enjoy the world that God had given us, to enjoy each other’s company, and to feel free to be us. We felt a weight lift from our shoulders for just that short time. We then made an agreement that we would make sure to find the time to stop and stare, every so often. It helps us to connect to God and connect with each other. It helps us to breath and recharge.

Just as Misao had found the beauty in her imperfect work, and found enjoyment in the freedom to create, so to have I found a desire to just be me, to enjoy my imperfections, to be thankful for all the silliness and wildness of life. Just as the Japanese find beauty in imperfection and sometimes intentionally add imperfection. I am going to find my imperfections and let them be. God loves us in all our imperfections. It can be so tiring trying to be perfect, trying to meet the standards that society gives. It can pull you away from being content with life. I had kind of just been flowing along, working, eating (too much), sleeping (very little) and trying to get my body into some sort of shape that was respectable to society. I had lost my paddles as it were.

In the Psalms we are reminded to be still and know that God is God. The lady who taught us how to weave, said that she found it helped her to connect with God, to stop mentally and be aware of God. It made Jayne and I think about how we connected with God. How did we stop mentally and let God. For Jayne it was through dance, and movement, through senses and things such as going for a walk on the beach. She said she found that doing the weaving helped her, as I found it did. I find it is through my writing and through my passion for taste, understanding flavours and their combinations. I have been on a journey trying to understand the weirdness that is my body, in my journey I have tried several classes at the gym that help me to connect with how my muscles move.

One of those classes is the martial art of Tai chi, shock horror to some of my readers, in which we move our bodies in a kind of natural movement, hands leading feet and a kind of mental slowing down. Brian our instructor informed us how the art form came about through the study of nature and natures movement. In Tai Chi, the movement and breathing allow your mind to slow down and focus on the stillness. I know for some there is a spiritual connection, but for Jayne and me, we found it to be de-stressing, and a chance to switch off from what was going on outside the studio.

Guinea pig Tai Chi

So, after my journey down the probably babbling, nonsensical rabbit hole, I get to my point. We so often struggle to find a stillness, a quietude. The Bible encourages us often to slow down and let God. It is common throughout many cultures that being still is a good thing, an important thing. However, you find it, in whatever form stillness or as it is now called mindfulness is a great thing, and if you create something in the process even better.

If only I had £1000 to buy a loom, so I can now start weaving.

If this was helpful, or if you have any questions please feel free to comment below.