When it’s perfect, it falls

The last of the cherry blossom. On the tree, it turns ever more perfect. And when it’s perfect, it falls. And then of course once it hits the ground it gets all mushed up. So it’s only absolutely perfect when it’s falling through the air, this way and that, for the briefest time. . . I think that only we Japanese understand that, don’t you?

– David Mitchell, Ghostwritten

Thanks are due to Sam for reminding me of the David Mitchell quote.  One day I hope to get closer to understanding the fleeting beauty of the sakura.  These pictures were taken a week ago and already it has gone, mushed underfoot as the trees blaze green and the hayfever has Tokyoites sneezing into their face masks.  This year more than others, understandably, we have longed for the release of the hanami, the joy that the sakura brings, the feeling that, like the trees, we can begin again.

And even as we begin, know that it must come to an end.  We are, after all, like petals on the wind.

Every one of us is losing something precious to us. Lost opportunities, lost possibilities, feelings we can never get back again. That’s part of what it means to be alive

– Haruki Murakami, Kafka on the Shore

Be sure to enjoy as many perfect moments as you can before the fall.