One Time. One Meeting.

"Ichigo-Ichie" (One time. One meeting.) ~Sen no Rikyu

This quote was posted near the replica of a Japanese tea house at the Seattle Art Museum, followed by this interpretation:

"This gathering never happened in the past and will never happen in the future, as its exact nature never will be the same again."

What bittersweetness. I tasted this last week during my visit to New Hampshire. To know I've never experienced the exact same event with the exact same people adds an excitement, anticipation, and enjoyment to the occasion. Conversely, to know I will never experience it the same way with the same people ever again lends a sadness, a desperation, and a determination to make the most of it. As much as I want to make those moments last, there will still only be twenty-four hours in a day. (It sounds a lot like the post-Christmas let-down, doesn't it?)

Sen no Rikyu probably meant to inspire a more "slow down and enjoy it" attitude with this phrase, rather than a melancholy one. But the bittersweetness I speak of is not joyless. There is hope at the heart of it! Think of all the events in life that are so good and you look back on them with fondness, even when you know you will never experience them again--your graduation, special family vacations, your wedding, and the birth of children. Think of the hope behind them--you look forward to moving on to a new and exciting time of life, building relationships with your family even after the vacation is over, starting a life with your soul-mate, and watching your children grow.

"Ichigo-Ichie." It reminds me not to take these "gatherings" for granted. I can anticipate them, enjoy them, and then remember them. Journaling makes that easier for me. I write about the things I'm looking forward to and, thereby, prepare myself to enjoy them to the fullest by not having any wrong expectations. I write about what happened to record a bit of that "exact nature" (although it's very much incomplete), and then reread it down the road. I don't pretend to fully relive an event this way, but I feel like it brings me closer to the people I was with and the things we saw or did. And with this revisiting, I learn how to move on to the next time, next meeting.