Wabi Sabi

When we bought our house the sellers left a large terra cotta urn on the front porch. I found old real estate listing photos that showed the same urn in the same spot when the sellers bought the house 10 years before us -- so that urn has been there from the beginning, probably 20 years or more.

I left it where it was, and over the years plopped a few plants in it for color in the summer. Mostly just petunias, but I tried other things too. 

I do love the shape and substantial size and narrow base, and I love the way it anchors that corner of our front portal as you come up the walk.

But when summer is gone by, it's a large empty vessel standing in a prominent spot at the front of our house. I did put a fake lighted Christmas tree in it over the holidays, but otherwise it's empty for months. The finish is flaking and deteriorating and turning moldy in spots. 

It is an elegant shape that can remain empty and be an artistic focal point, while its deteriorating state evokes wabi sabi principles of gentle imperfection. 

But does it really? 

Does it look like a lovely example of natural decay and the impermanence of manmade objects? Or does it look like a crumbling old pot?

I'm leaning toward crumbling old moldy pot. Especially since it sits right there at the top of the walk, welcoming you to our front door, empty all winter and discoloring the cement porch floor beneath it. I think it just looks crummy.

Santa Fe is full of pottery yards, import stores and garden sculpture shops. I drive past two huge open air pottery lots each time I go to the center, and their wares are extensive. Colorful ceramic urns are piled high for acres. I'm tempted.

It just seems that the main focal piece at our front door should be beautiful and welcoming, with or without a summer petunia in it. I'm not sure deteriorating moldy terra cotta does that.

And yet . . . the wabi sabi principle of serene absence has its own charms. The urn is tucked into the shadows by the front pillar, unobtrusive in its soft brown curves against adobe and wood, surrounded by gravel. It fits.

Would you replace it with a bright, clean ceramic urn? Even a newer, fresher terra cotta one? Or keep it and celebrate its shabby, flaking, earthy look? 

I'm not sure which way to go.