(002) How to savour ephemerality

Through the Japanese concept "mono no aware"

物の哀れ

Mono no aware (n.) is a Japanese term that refers to “the bittersweet realisation of the ephemeral nature of all things. It is the awareness that everything in existence is temporary. The fleetingness of youth, the fading of romance, and the changing of seasons are not to be mourned, but cherished and appreciated in their impermanence, for that is where their beauty originates. The term has also been referred to as “the ‘ahh-ness’ of things” in life, love and the universe.”

Today I’m sharing a curation that evokes this feeling. It remains one of the core challenges in life to transition from longing to appreciation for what has passed, the things that ~hurt so good. After you explore this email, come back and read this essay.

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Still from In the Mood for Love (2000) directed by Wong Kar-wai

We’re Not Really Strangers

Fire Island (2015) by Wolfgang Tillmans

From East Boston, 1996 / Night Walk by Franz Wright

Do you know how beautiful you are? (2021, ongoing) by Ashley Markle — an intimate photo essay on rebuilding her relationship with her father

Sally Wen Mao on why honesty is more important than success

Fleeting Moment by Balenciaga (1949) and its redesign in 1960

From The Dispossessed: An Ambiguous Utopia by Ursula K. Le Guin

Jungle Fever, 1991/2007 by Hank Willis Thomas

Sakura (cherry blossoms) in Tokyo, Japan photographed by Yu Kato (2019)

Still from Before Sunrise (1995) directed by Richard Linklater as Jesse and Celine listen to this song

From Notes on how to be happy (2019) by Ava Huang

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Thinking of someone? Forward this.

Feeling something? Here’s that essay mentioned at the beginning of the email.

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