“There are two ways to translate a sentence between English and Japanese. One is chokuyaku – a direct translation of the actual words; the other is iyaku , a contextual translation of the meaning. The literal chokuyaku may be considered more ‘perfect’, in terms of translating every piece of the sentence, but it doesn’t take into account the context of its reception, just as an idea of a ‘perfect life’ doesn’t take into account the context of our own complex and challenging reality. It’s often the iyaku – the seemingly ‘imperfect’ version – that is infinitely more powerful, graceful and valuable, giving the more authentic translation, just as the ‘imperfect life’ is the authentic way of living.”

Excerpt From: Kempton, Beth. “Wabi Sabi: Japanese Wisdom for a Perfectly Imperfect Life.”

“It almost goes without saying that money is a major source of anxiety for a lot of people, especially in current times when wages are stagnating in most places and not growing in line with inflation or the costs of goods and services. Even if you are earning a decent wage or are lucky enough to get help from your family or partner, it can still be a struggle to budget for everything that you need on a day-to-day basis. That’s before you even get to saving up for things in the future – whether that’s a deposit on a flat or house of your own, a car or going on holiday every so often. Lots of people say that they struggle to change their spending habits. It’s easy to think every so often ‘oh, well I’m just not going to spend any money this week,’ but that is an impossible aim because unless you go and live ‘off grid’ in a hut in the wilderness somewhere, you need to spend money to be able to survive on a daily basis. ”

Excerpt From: Sarah Harvey. “Kaizen.”