★3 春

Spring.

One of the things I love most about living in Japan and Japanese culture is the emphasis that's placed on the Four Seasons. Everything changes according to the season. The way you eat Soba changes. As do blends of tea. There's a time for Nabe and a time for Soumen. Summer is for うな丼 but Mikan are for Winter. 春、夏、秋、冬。Seasons changing is the flow of Nature and Japan goes with that flow. Here, I feel in tune with Nature, with the seasons, in a way I never did before. I like it.

Now it's Spring.
I like Spring.
I can feel Spring.

Today I saw my first Cherry Blossoms of the year.


桜 - Sakura



The icon of Spring in Japan.


I stumbled across a shrine near my work today. I'd arrived with some time to spare and, finding the weather as nice as it was, decided to take a little stroll down the street. To my surprise and pleasure a few feet up ahead I was greeted with patches of pink just beyond a stone torii gate.

I love Spring, I thought. As a wave of peace washed over me.



There's something about Spring. They say 'Love is in the Air', and it is.

Love of Life.

Spring is about Life; about Living.
About rebirth and renewal. New beginnings.
The buds are sprouting, trying their very best to push their way out of the darkness, to grow into the light. They're trying so hard to live! To poke their little selves out where they can feel the breeze and touch the warm sun.
Everything is life.
After the death of Winter there is life again.
After our death there is life again.

I think, It's never truly over. Not forever, anyway. For us, all of us living things, there's always another chance. Our chances never end. Because just as life takes away it gives back. Things coil, then they spring back. We coil, then we spring back. That's the cycle of life and death. It's what we are. Who we are.

It's beautiful.

I look at the flowers and I think, I want to try my best as well.
All is not lost.

It never is.



Awaken with the flowers.
Blow free in the Sky.