In Japan there is an entire authentic tradition founded on the appreciation of aging, as in the Zen gardens whose moss and trees spend time softening, enclosing, expanding, like life itself, or in the magic of an old vessel, greenish and burnt with time, as if layers of meaning are contained therein. Wrinkles and growths, whether on people or trees, demonstrate their endurance and solidity despite existential vagaries.
— Maria Jaoudi, Christian Mysticism East and West