hope for the flowers

It's now been a year and a month since wonder | wander | women went into lockdown. Last year I was home with a month's worth of groceries, watching the cherry tree two streets over come into flower and then drop its blooms. I only saw it from my window, too anxious and disoriented to leave the house and cross the suddenly-silent city streets, even for our favourite flowers.

Britain came out of lockdown earlier this month. The government repeated lines from last summer like 'easing restrictions' and 'with sensible precautions', and like last summer the crowds forgot masks, social distancing and hygiene protocols to revel at bars and restaurants all over the country and show how empty those words are.

"Mono no aware" (物の哀れ) is the Japanese phrase most associated with cherry blossoms, meaning "the pathos of things". The phrase suggests that it's the ephemeral nature of such things as cherry blossoms and human lives that makes them beautiful.

I would say that human memories are more fragile and ephemeral than our lives, and sometimes the loss of them is not beautiful at all. We can heal through forgetting, but we also hurt ourselves when we let our experiences pass by without examining or learning from them.

At the same time, we are always adapting, readjusting, and moving forward.

This year, wearing a mask (yes, even outdoors) and choosing a time when the parks were likely to be empty, I ventured out to greet the flowers. It hurt to miss them last year, but now they've returned, and I am deeply grateful that we were both able to emerge from a long winter and greet each other again.

With care, guidance and patience, let us look forward and work for a happier, safer spring.