Cherry Blossoms in Japan Amidst the Chaos

My sweet brother in Japan sends me photos of cherry blossoms every spring, ranging from mid March to early April. Typically I have enough time in a year to forget about this annual event, so I always get a pleasant surprise.

Yesterday I woke up to this picture, which ensured that I skipped out of bed (almost) with my heart bursting with fuzzy pink cherry blossom love. I’ve seen it written that deep down in Japanese people’s psyche, we’d always find Mt Fuji and cherry blossoms. Credible, I feel.

My father also posted a picture of cherry blossoms on Facebook yesterday. He must’ve gone for a walk with my brother to see the flowers. With that fb post my father mentioned that a couple of ancient cherry trees there had died and were felled. Reading that, I could’t help but envisage new shoots coming up from the ‘dead’ tree stump next spring.

Curiously, this year my father and brother didn’t wait till the cherries were in full bloom to do their ‘Hanami: the Japanese traditional custom of enjoying the transient beauty of flowers,’ as Wiki puts it. How poignant, I thought to myself, considering that these guys over on the Pacific Ocean have been in this you-know-what upheaval for a couple of months longer than I over here in the UK. Remembering that The Diamond Princess cruise ship docked at their very own Yokohama Port. They can’t wait till a brighter time where there is no more need to go in search of loo rolls; where brand-new pupils are welcomed into schools beaming with smiles under the blooming cherry trees; when hordes of people gather by the rivers on their picnic blankets eating, drinking and being generally merry amidst the warm cherry petal shower.

My observation is that the nature keeps ticking over. The bare cherry tree in my bother’s picture will be gleaming pink in a couple of weeks. I hear animals have returned to quarantined towns and dolphins are swimming in Venice canals. Nature, not forgetting that we are a part of it, is reaching out to us. It always has been, I feel. I am going to meet it half way.

Back to gardening!