thy life is a riddle.

stomach growls ,  she didn’t eat enough before her shift. again.

❛ erik .. y-you know i have duties soon ..  ❜  she’s flustered, but is she directly denying the offer?  not quite.

❛  here...n-now..?!  ❜   have mercy on her, even a little.

❛  when you put it like that ..  !  ❜

iki is an expression of simplicity, sophistication, spontaneity and originality. It is the subtle display of wealth and taste, a refinement with flair, the tasteful manifestation of sensuality and appetite for life. Etymologically, iki has a root that means pure and unadulterated. iki is not used to describe natural phenomena, but may be expressed in human appreciation of natural beauty or in the nature of human beings. iki is generally used in Japanese culture to describe qualities that are aesthetically appealing and, when used to refer to a person, constitutes a high compliment.

mono no aware, literally ‘the pathos of things’, refers to the awareness of impermanence and a poignant feeling of transience in the passing of lives and objects, expressed in Japanese art for example by falling blossoms, the changes of the moon and the passing of the seasons. mono no aware is felt by the ‘heart-mind’ (the Japanese word ‘kokoro’ means both heart and mind) as it experiences something singular. The overall impact of this aesthetic principle is to recognize the impermanence of everything that exists and to create a deeper connection with it because of its fleeting nature, appreciating the bittersweet beauty of change in itself.

ma is the term for the Japanese concept of negative space. Though commonly used to refer to literal, visible negative space, ma may also refer to the mere perception of such, without necessarily requiring a physical compositional element. ma combines the characters for door and sun, which together depict a door through the crevice of which the sunlight peeps in. ma is filled with nothing but energy and feeling, thus enabling growth, sparking creativity and permitting freedom. It is the momentary pause in speech needed to convey meaningful words and the sincerity of a feeling, the silence between the notes that make the music. ma is an emptiness full of possibilities, like a promise yet to be fulfilled.

“ that line, again?  “