A meditation on nature’s spring trees.
Since I wrote about the cherry blossoms a few weeks ago, they’ve faded, but all is not lost.
It feels like yesterday, wandering through my garden enveloped in the intoxicating fragrances and bursts of color: nature’s bright return, a lush life if you will.
The delicate pink clouds of cherry blossoms adorning the gnarled branches are always the first to take my breath away each year.
I feel blessed to catch their fleeting beauty for just a few precious days before the petals begin their descent, carpeting the ground like soft pink snow.
Soon after, my lilac bushes wake from their slumber, their deep purple blooms emerging with an intensity that perfumes the entire garden by their heady floral aroma. I inhaled it deeply as if drinking the very essence of spring into my memory bank.
Yet I know this rapture is but a mere whisper, as the vibrant blooms quickly peak before fading back into greenery once more. I feel an urgency to capture these photos while I can. Okay, one more…
After these delicate floral unveilings, perhaps the most profound magic unfurls all around me – the rebirth of every tree and shrub. What was once a scenery of twisted bare branches becomes a verdant cathedral, with tightly furled buds resembling tiny mouse ears unraveling into tender new leaves.
I watch in wonder as they emerge almost iridescent in the early morning light set with dew, each one a tiny chalice capturing the nourishing rays of the sun.
You’d think how could anything be more beautiful, right?
The lilacs are fading fast. The tulips and daffodils have wilted, but wait. The oak grove in front of my house today suddenly bursts into the most stunning sun dappled green.
As I sit and stare, I’m awed by the beauty. Five years of art school and I still can’t describe the color. Not quite lime, chartreuse or granny smith apple green but with a luscious light of life itself.
The leaves shimmer in the sunlight, creating a mosaic of colors that seem to dance in the gentle breeze. The overall effect is one of freshness and vitality, as if the very essence of life is infused into each leaf.
I know in just a matter of weeks, the soft translucent canopy will deepen into rich shades of emerald, casting a mesmerizing dappled light show onto the soil below.
I can sense the ancient roots pulsing with fresh life force, sustaining this sublime dance of renewal year after year. My heart swells with profound reverence witnessing this grand cycle of regeneration unfold once more.
The ephemeral blooms and new growth serve as poignant reminders that all material forms in this physical world are impermanent and ever-changing.
Both my father and maternal grandfather died on May 1 many moons ago. May is my favorite month and at first I wanted to shake my fist at God. Why, why are you ruining this beautiful month of new beginnings with death and loss and grieving. Seriously WTF!
It took me a long time to appreciate the irony.
Just as the blossoms surrender their beauty and fall to feed the soil, I grew to appreciate that our human bodies too will one day compost and nourish new life. No state is permanent – the emergence, peak, and deterioration of forms is an endlessly unfolding process.
Bearing witness to nature’s fleeting metamorphoses awakens me to the preciousness and profundity of each fleeting moment of this earthly journey.
How blessed are all of us to inhabit these impermanent forms, to revel in the rapture of embodied existence while it lasts! In the face of constant arising and passing away, I’m reminded to lean into the fullness of each experience without grasping or clinging.
May we all breathe fully into the rapture of ephemeral beauty, embracing the constant unfurling of the sacred cycle.
Just as nature inhales and exhales eternally through these seasons, so too must we surrender to the perpetual renewal of our own being.
With the trees as our wisest teachers, may we revel in each transient revelation while holding all phenomena – beautiful or painful, pleasurable or agonizing – with the unwavering openness and equanimity of a vast and spacious presence.
Let this blessing of awareness permeate your existence, inspiring deep reverence for the precariousness of this fleeting human life. Allow the pastel blossoms and tender greens serve as your gurus, awakening you to the impermanent and impermanent truth of existence itself. And through it all, may your heart remain absorbed in wonder, basking in the resplendent beauty that arises and dissolves with every sacred breath.
Ah, they don’t call it the merry month of May for nothing!
I hope you enjoyed May Look for more original photo quotes sooner than later.
xo, Layla
