From Wikipedia: Wabi-sabi (侘寂^?) represents a comprehensive Japanese world view or aesthetic centered on the acceptance of transience and imperfection. The aesthetic is sometimes described as one of beauty that is “imperfect, impermanent, and incomplete”.^[1]

We went to a wedding yesterday, a beautiful wedding 2 hours outside of the city. The sun was shinning, the leaves were changing, The dying of the trees, it is exceptionally beautiful, isn’t it?

I had forgotten the girls jackets. I had remembered two jackets for myself and one for my friend, but I had managed to forget the jackets for either of the girls. It wasn’t cold yet, but it would be. The whole evening the girls didn’t seem to mind. Running and jumping and dancing, When they got particularly cold, they would sit in one of our laps and snuggle in. No jacket needed when you can tuck your arms into mommy and daddy, rub your red hair up their front like a cat.

My girls are still learning when it is appropriate to excercise their exceptionally large vocabularies. Juliet was narrating the entire wedding. Her exclamation at the appearance of the bride was perhaps inappropriate, but she was right. The bride was so pretty. And perhaps the promise of getting to go pet the goats after the ceremony was a bit too much. Repeatedly I was asked in a three-year-old whisper “now goats?” And the pronouncement of the bride and groom as an officially married couple was followed by a whoop from me, one from my three-year old, and a very loud and excited “NOW GOATS” Sure. Why not. First comes love then comes marriage then comes goats.

And suddenly we have a new phrase in our house to describe the happy freedom after the fancy formalities, to describe the little joys of a brownie or a mocha, or crawling into bed. Now, Goats. Yes we get to ride the train (now goats!) yes we can have candy after medicine (now goats!). I’m looking for the goats in my life. I want to say more often, NOW GOATS!

My husband and the little one didn’t make it through the whole ceremony. Quiet is a relative term and quiet enough for a wedding is not a volume level Priscilla has. Plus, when Christian scooped Priscilla up, her soaked through diaper soaked through her leggings and both of his shirts. I left Juliet with a trusted friend and found a gleeful and naked legged toddler thrilled that she got to play in the front seat. Wabi-sabi. This mis-hap was easily Rilla’s favorite part.

It was probably close with the dancing and the goats and the hotdogs for dinner, but Juliet’s favorite thing seemed to be the sawdust covering the floor. Initially, I asked her to stay out of it. But come on, we were in a barn. Their dresses were totally washable, and it did look fun. She buried her feet and her legs, she threw it in the air, and the girl’s hair and dresses were speckled with saw dust, and so was I after they crawled back into my lap to warm their naked arms up. I love the smell of sawdust. It looked like confetti in their hair. We were celebrating after all.