This past Sunday, during lunch with some friends, one of them mentioned that Ikebana had been a hobby of hers for many years (did she say 20 years? she might have).
That got me to remembering that I have been meaning to experiment with this flower arranging form for some time now, and had even bought, years ago, a container designed for that purpose. Like so many other things that interest me, I never got around to doing anything with Ikebana, other than admiring arrangements wherever I happened to spot them. But the meditative aspect of the practice of Ikebana continued to fascinate me. Ikebana’s use of asymmetry is also appealing. And I am attracted to Ikebana’s resonance with the wabi-sabi notion that that there is beauty and value in anything that is imperfect, incomplete, and impermanent.
Inspired by my friend’s comments, and gifted with my lunch hosts’ invitation to pluck a few Hosta leaves from their garden, I did the plucking and returned home to search out a few other items from my front yard to add to them.
The photo above shows what I came up with.
As the spring progresses, I think I will continue poking around my garden, looking for candidates for additional arrangements. Meanwhile, I’m going to see if I can figure out the perfect spot inside my house to dedicate to future Ikebana experiments.
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