Every year for one week in spring, I feel guilty. It is that week when the cherry trees blossom. This is when nature’s colour palette is upside down; leaves appear yo be blushing pink, bridal white, fireworks yellow or even electric green. No matter where I am, birds forget that singing is from 5:00 to 8:00 AM and they continue well into the afternoon.
It should be a national holiday, that week and I should sit on a park bench under one of those cherries. From 5:00 until 17:00.
Whatever we expect from life, whatever it is that we are waiting for: this is it! This is how we see ourselves when all is perfect. This is the traditional view of heaven: that spring garden with tweeting birds, sweet flower scents and warm sunlight.
So what do we do?
We go to work. We drive around in cars. We spend our day indoors or working on chores that have absolutely no meaning in the context of life and dreams.
Me too.
Hence the guilt.
But as I cycled to work, I stopped under a cherry tree and watched the pink snow flutter down. And I wondered: what does one dream of, when the dream has come true?
You have captured it perfectly. For years I had to commute at least 60km every day, often much more. And every spring – and missing out the burgeoning life in my very own garden (that I often only saw lit by the moon or the rising / setting sun at best) gave me exactly that feeling.
Now I should be in the position of being able to answer that question of yours as I can define my own working schedule most of the time and I could do a lot of work online. I believe both would be true for much more “knowledge worker jobs” that currently make use of the technological options we have today because of what I like to call the cult of face time.
Anyway – I really know I am blessed and I try to live “in the moment”, and when I feel I get stressed about something really unimportant I recall how I felt back then … having to say good-bye to my beloved seedlings in the early morning.
This is so beautifully expressed. I gather you don’t suffer from a hay fever. Cynicism aside, I have learned to appreciate Spring again, and could identify with the thoughts in this article. I would like Autumn to be our forever season, but then I have a feeling I would miss other periods too – the taste of salt in Summer, the crispy snow in Winter, and cherry blossoms. Hope you are fine, GF.
Thanks Paula. As a kid I could never understand what the big deal was about autumn until I found out that I was colour blind for red and green; I can’t see autumn colours…! Now I love all the seasons and have no preference, they all offer their own beauty.
You are? How do you manage in traffic? This means you are not hypersensitive to either heat or cold, and you have no hay fever 😉
Most traffic lights have red on top 🙂 in any case it’s the combinations of red and green that are the problem: green and brown with red mixed in are my biggest handicap: tree trunks and leaves are all the same to me. Indeed I have no hayfever 🙂
I am sorry you are missing out on Autumn :S. Does your fashion style suffer too?
Yep, I can’t match clothes 😦 I tend to buy the stuff they put on shop dummies so that I’m sure it matches. But the thing I regret most is that I can’t do colour based art. I’m quite creative but can only express in ways that don’t involve colour. How I would love to paint!
😦 😦 😦
🙂
:)? Ok 🙂 good night gfriend 😉
🙂 indeed. My night is over; greetings from China.
:S thought you were in Switzerland :S. Well, hope they treat you well.over there 🙂
Just for a business trip 《:) goodnight.
Ah! Take care and a safe trip.home!