THE SMALL HOUSE IN THE BACK GARDEN

Seseragi my garden, has a Japanese tea house overlooking the pond. During the warm weather everyone likes to sit on the engawa and feed the fish. (The engawa is similar to the Western porch or veranda.) Today the pond is frozen and cold. The fish are at the very bottom hibernating until the spring. When the water reaches 50 to 55 degrees they will swim drunkenly to the surface. I sit and wait for them and count them hoping that they all make it through the winter.

SESERAGI

I call my garden and pond seseragi. Seseragi means a murmuring stream, a hidden stream, or the sound that a stream makes when tumbling over rocks. For me, seseragi is the most beautiful sound in the world.

MY GARDEN SESERAGI

My garden Seseragi was inspired by Rakushisha "The Hut of Fallen Persimmons" that was owned by Basho's disciple Kyorai. Basho was a poet who visited Rakushisha three times. In Western eyes he is known as the haiku poet. He is the archetype of Japanese poets and poetry. AWAKE AT NIGHT Awake at night-- the sound of the water jar cracking in the cold. ................ FIRST DAY OF SPRING First day of spring-- I keep thinking about the end of autumn. Basho

WABI

Wabi refers to simplicity and tranquility as guidelines for living, provides the ideal philosophical foundation for life....It is the most suitable and the most satisfying physically, emotionally, intellectually, and spiritually. Quote from Elements of Japanese Design, by Boye Lafayette De Mente Wabi stems from the root wa, which refers to harmony, peace, tranquillity, and balance. Generally speaking, wabi had the original meaning of sad, desolate, and lonely, but poetically it has come to mean simple, unmaterialistic, humble by choice, and in tune with nature. Someone who is perfectly herself and never craves to be anything else would be described as wabi.