What we can learn from centuries-old Japanese culture to help us embrace our messy, beautiful lives (+ My new book ‘Wabi Sabi’ is here!)

As the sun rises on the day that my new book ‘Wabi Sabi: Japanese wisdom for a perfectly imperfect life’ is released into the world, I find myself transported back to a quiet temple in Kyoto, where I had been staying in simple temple lodgings back in March. I rose early for the morning meditation, then padded barefoot to a quiet room to interview the Deputy Head Priest Reverend Takafumi Kawakami.

One of the things Reverend Kawakami told me, which has stuck with me ever since, was this: “Peop...