Edie Everette: Fleeting as they are, take notice of blossoms

Published 1:30 am Saturday, April 2, 2022

By Edie Everette / Herald Forum

The thing that makes me aware of my mortality more than birthdays, the new year or watching former infants graduate college is the yearly pageant of blossoming trees.

All year, every year I wait for their slow pink and white explosions and yet as soon as they begin, I am filled with a sense of dread. I experience guilt over the fact that I barely pay attention to this fleeting phenomenon which translates, emotionally, to my barely paying attention to the beauty of life itself.

Trees such as the animated dogwood, ubiquitous cherry and lemony magnolia represent spring, beauty and the possibility of something new – or, at least of something old feeling new. Yet there I go, swiftly driving past, correcting my dogs beneath or typing a text while decorated branches loom over my shoulder.

What do I expect myself to do in order to give these trees the appreciation they deserve? Stand with my head buried in their cloud-like boughs? Write sonnets to blossoms? Flatten their flowers between newsprint pages of Putin’s kleptocracy?

Naturally, Japan is way ahead of me. Hanami, or “flower viewing,” is a centuries-old tradition in Japan. In modern day Japan hanami means having an outdoor celebration and partying down. They even have a term for appreciating cherry blossoms at night – that is called yozakura, when paper or electric lanterns are hung in the trees.

Once upon a time in Japan, people believed that there were kami, or spirits, inside the trees and made offerings. Poems were written in praise of the delicate cherry flowers, which, explains Wikipedia “were seen as a metaphor for life itself, luminous and beautiful yet fleeting and ephemeral.”

At least I know that I am not alone in my appreciation-challenged feelings toward blossoming trees. Being that I am not going to move to Japan any time soon, there is another solution to be with my hanami kind! The annual, weekend-long Seattle Cherry Blossom & Japanese Cultural Festival is happening April 8-10 with slideshows, Go game lessons, virtual visits to Fukushima, saki tastings and tea ceremonies. The festival was initiated in 1976 with a gift of 1,000 cherry trees that were given to Seattle by Japan’s former Prime Minister, Takeo Miki, in commemoration of America’s bicentennial and the long friendship between our two countries.

Just don’t forget the trees. As Japanese poet Ariwara no Narihira, who was born in 825, wrote:

If there were no cherry blossoms in this world;

How much more tranquil our hearts would be in spring.

Edie Everette is a writer, news junkie and lives in Monroe.