Care & Repair

Client: UCI Humanities Center
Collaborators: Judy Wu

To care for something, in its essence, is to watch over it, to tend it, to protect it—and at times, to let go of it; to repair entails a reorganization—a shift to re-align, to heal, to transform.  Both of these acts share a common thread: the impermanence.  Ikebana (“to give life to flowers”), is a Japanese practice of floral arrangements that connects the idea of Heaven, Humanity, and Earth, expressed through line, color, and mass.  Plants and flowers are mindfully selected and are carefully trimmed and arranged.  The beauty of this process is that it is up to the individual to create their own arrangement—albeit with set rules and standards in the practice—and give life to their creations.  And simply by engaging in this act, the participant could perhaps carry these lessons within their own lives, as a means to practice caring for others or themselves just as they envision for their floral design.  Caring for someone or something can have an immediacy, but repairing a fractured bond takes repeated and consistent care.  Alas, that reparation may not be the same as it once was—but that’s the beauty of the impermanence—because there is always a potential for change, so long as one doesn’t stop caring.