• Lifestyle

Unfolding of Spring

Spring in New York is an absolutely wonderful experience and always makes me thankful I live in a city that embraces three months of this beautiful season. My favoriate place to lounge around and spend a lazy afternoon in early May: Brooklyn Botanical Gardens. More specifically, the Cherry Esplanade with its rows of ‘Kansan’ Cherry Blossoms currently in its peak bloom.

Angy and I had a plan earlier in the day to do some plant shopping at a garden sale on the grounds, but we couldn’t help but be swept up by these lovely flowering trees. Cherry Blossoms are very similar to the Magnolia trees across the street from our apartment, in that their flowers bloom for only a short period of time every year (approximately 10 days in New York). So they are a bit of a fleeting beauty, to be cherished when possible.

The Japanese have a term appropriate at this kind of moment – Mono no Aware. It is a reference to an appreciation for the transient and temporal nature of all things and based on a philosophy of living in the present. In honor of the beautiful blossoms, I decided to take that day off and spend it with my best friend.