Of Cherry Blossoms and Wabi Sabi | ThursdayTreeLove 2023 – 1

The Japanese notion of wabi-sabi reflects the philosophy of the cherry blossom. It signifies all that is temporal and beautiful because of its sheer impermanence, not in spite of it—perhaps, more exquisite for the inevitability of loss.

Looking back at our early years in the hills of Kohima—then, a pristine hill town, known for its quiet life, away from the hustle and madness of big cities—we were quite accustomed to the sight of pretty pink Cherry blossoms everywhere in the early spring months. They usually lasted long and it was a regular sight in most of the homes in our campus and it wouldn’t be wrong to say, we often took their beauty for granted.

It was only much later, when I moved to Kolkata, that I began to notice how the landscape we often failed to notice back home, was a rather unusually beautiful sight. Wish we could have captured more of the blooms, the trees or the sky. Over time, of course, the landscape of Kohima has changed, I’m told. But, the blossoms still come at the same time, and now, some of my friends and even some of my ex-students (from the school where I once taught), share the glorious views on social media.

Today, I’m bringing you a leaf out of our travel diary of 2019. This was a much-awaited visit to Japan that we made in 2019, a year before the pandemic hit. The two photos and the video were shot on a beautiful spring day at Nara, while we were being given a guided tour of the Deer Park by our good friend Jatin and his nine-year-old son, Akashi.

We were on our way to the park, when we came across this stunningly breathtaking Cherry tree, swaying in the breeze. It was heavily laden with pretty pink blossoms as you can see and it was one of those moments we had to stop and look at this tree and the surrounding ones with awe, amazement and wonder!!!

Today, I’m so thankful that I didn’t miss the chance that day, to grab a quick video of this gorgeous tree, which I’m sharing with you all, today. The second one is of another tree nearby and the final shot is a closeup shot of the blossoms. I don’t think words can ever do enough justice to describe them—you got to see them, hold them in your palms and then, you’ll see how fragile, delicate and pretty they are!

That’s all for today. I’ve skipped a few #treeLove editions last year as life kept throwing curve balls my way. This year, I’m trying to be regular. Well, hopefully, things are better and I keep my resolve to blog, click photos and share them more often.

Will be back with another edition of tree photos next fortnight. Until then, lets all be grateful for Mother Nature that continues to bring us blessings manifold.

*******

Joining Parul for Thursday Tree love—a photo feature, hosted on her blog, which she shares on the 2nd and the 4th Thursday, every month. If you’d like to see more tree photos, do hop over to the blog where you can find more tree pictures from across the world.