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antique kimono

image via neville trickett's flickr photo stream

"Boro was born of forgotten values of ‘mottainai’ or ‘too good to waste’. An idea dangerously lacking in the modern consumer lifestyle."

a clip from a 2011 article, "Boro: Japanese folk fabric."

✜

Patches sewn upon patches, on something passed from one generation to the next. Continuing to creatively make use of the little that they had. A custom that is missing when we have money to buy new things. 

The image is a little bit like a garden... rows of seeds, planted inside patches, waiting for the sun to warm the earth. It also reminds me of the fragility of life. Each patch could represent a new generation, new patches continually covering the old. The old patches fade to nothing, as the cloth becomes made up of patches sewn together, shaped by what was there before. Or it could be like leaves covering the ground, and over time becoming part of the soil.

~

Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, 

where moths and vermin destroy, and where 

thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves 

treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin 

do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in 

and steal. For where your treasure is, there your 

heart will be also.

No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate 
the one and love the other, or you will be devoted 
to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve 
both God and money.

~from matthew 6

For the Lord is good and his love endures forever;
his faithfulness continues through all generations.

~from psalm 100