Flowering cherry, signifier of spring.
Oh, early bloomer,
You beckon summer,
Even as you’ll disappear
Long before she arrives.
To put on such a splendid show, without waiting for an audience, is a certain act of defiance.
It is also an act of love, of beauty for the sake of beauty.
There is a lesson in all of this.
You must be still and quiet to glean it.
You must pause and be patient to learn it.
The world will do everything it can to obscure such mysteries.
I’m not sure why it should be that way.
Pink and green, such wonderful colors after a winter of grays and browns, backed by a sky of blue.
So richly saturated your heart wants to burst again, like it does every year.
The balm that erases and heals a winter of hurt.
This is what beauty does.
This is what art does.
Taken together, they can change the world.
“An artist, under pain of oblivion, must have confidence in himself, and listen only to his real master: Nature.” ~ Auguste Renoir
