cherry blossom adventures - a thoughtful day
Note: This isn't going to be a very coherent post - more like a collection of meandering thoughts. It won't make much sense so I won't be offended if you don't read it.
I went to the cherry blossom festival with a friend yesterday. We started out in the lawn area under the Washington monument where the kite festival was taking place. There were a lot of families and a lot of colorful kites of all shapes and sizes. We had a little "picnic" and then just laid back on the blanket and talked. We talked about our current lives, our future aspirations and reminisced a little of events in the past. Nothing was resolved and I probably talked her poor ear off, but it felt really good. Just sitting there and letting the words roll out and not thinking too much. Should I be saying all of this? Am I bothering her? How should I say this so she doesn't think this/that? Best of all, it didn't have to be presented in a neat understandable little box covered by a perfect solution. I really love her no-nonsense personality. I tend to let my situation and my problems become my world. They consume me and make me miserable and I allow them to because I feel guilty if I do anything happy. Whereas she looks at her problems more like bullet points on a checklist to be taken care of, but not to overtake her life. She doesn't dwell on issues or sit and plan out how everything should be perfectly done. She just goes out there and does. If something doesn't work she goes out there and tries again. It was pretty amazing actually, like I was re-meeting my friend of 10+ years for the first time.
I love how great friendships can also continue in silence. How you can just sit there enjoying the comfort of their prescience and not have to say a word. During these moments I like to look around.
This one little toddler (probably almost a yr old?) in a rainbow sweatshirt runs right by us on her stubby legs. Her father chases after her, but as soon as he puts her down, she's off again. She had this wide incredible grin on her face. She wasn't running towards anything - she was just laughing at the incredible joy of being able to run. In fact, all the little kids were. Running around, laughing at nothing as if it were the funniest thing in the world. Didn't we all start out like that? When did we start to need a reason for everything? Now, if as a grown person, I ran around laughing at nothing everyone would probably think I was insane. But when a kid does it, everyone stops to look and smile, thinking it's the cutest thing ever.
We went to the National Building Museum where they had booths up for making crafts. There was flower planting, bridge making and picture taking. But what caught our eyes, being the girly girls that we are, was the making cherry blossoms out of tissue paper. I wanted one for my wrist, but short as I am, I still felt a little out of place among the little kids. Shyly, I asked the booth lady if there was enough for us to just make one. She smiled and said that this isn't just for the kids, but also the kids at heart. That would be us! With more concentration then we've exerted all day, we sat down to create our masterpieces. Apparently, 4 years of college comes in handy because ours turned out to be amazing creations. Our fellow creators began to turn to us for advice on the art of tissue flower folding. Maybe there is such thing as a time travel machine because for those few minutes I felt like I was back in elementary school where the massive size of the world was an exciting adventure and life was much more hands on.
Towards the end of the day we were tired and basically walked in silence. This is when, being the nosy person that I am, I listen in on people's conversations. Some friends are taking pictures and the self-proclaimed prettiest was requesting a lot of single shots. The males of the group happily oblige. A mother was educating her son on the history of the cherry blossoms. I didn't know Japan gave us actual trees and not just seeds. An elderly couple does touristy poses under the Washington monument. I wonder if they ever got to take pictures like these in their youth. A couple embraces in silence as if the camera of the world was zoomed in on them.
The tidal basin is basically a giant pond that the Potomac River flows into. The cherry blossoms are planted right around the rim where some are so close that they hang over the sides of the railing, dipping their branches into the water. We were trying to meet a friend of mine here, but between the noise and the people, we couldn't find each other. We spent a lot of time being confused and walking around in circles. Makes me think, how even when two people are in the same area and are actively looking - they still can't find each other. How everyone in your life, how you met and how your relationships form, there's a lot of fate to it.
Even if you push for it, it won't necessarily happen. And just because you don't want it, doesn't mean it won't creep into your life. Do we defy fate and keep looking? Or take a leap of faith and pray everything works out for the best?
I went to the cherry blossom festival with a friend yesterday. We started out in the lawn area under the Washington monument where the kite festival was taking place. There were a lot of families and a lot of colorful kites of all shapes and sizes. We had a little "picnic" and then just laid back on the blanket and talked. We talked about our current lives, our future aspirations and reminisced a little of events in the past. Nothing was resolved and I probably talked her poor ear off, but it felt really good. Just sitting there and letting the words roll out and not thinking too much. Should I be saying all of this? Am I bothering her? How should I say this so she doesn't think this/that? Best of all, it didn't have to be presented in a neat understandable little box covered by a perfect solution. I really love her no-nonsense personality. I tend to let my situation and my problems become my world. They consume me and make me miserable and I allow them to because I feel guilty if I do anything happy. Whereas she looks at her problems more like bullet points on a checklist to be taken care of, but not to overtake her life. She doesn't dwell on issues or sit and plan out how everything should be perfectly done. She just goes out there and does. If something doesn't work she goes out there and tries again. It was pretty amazing actually, like I was re-meeting my friend of 10+ years for the first time.
I love how great friendships can also continue in silence. How you can just sit there enjoying the comfort of their prescience and not have to say a word. During these moments I like to look around.
This one little toddler (probably almost a yr old?) in a rainbow sweatshirt runs right by us on her stubby legs. Her father chases after her, but as soon as he puts her down, she's off again. She had this wide incredible grin on her face. She wasn't running towards anything - she was just laughing at the incredible joy of being able to run. In fact, all the little kids were. Running around, laughing at nothing as if it were the funniest thing in the world. Didn't we all start out like that? When did we start to need a reason for everything? Now, if as a grown person, I ran around laughing at nothing everyone would probably think I was insane. But when a kid does it, everyone stops to look and smile, thinking it's the cutest thing ever.
We went to the National Building Museum where they had booths up for making crafts. There was flower planting, bridge making and picture taking. But what caught our eyes, being the girly girls that we are, was the making cherry blossoms out of tissue paper. I wanted one for my wrist, but short as I am, I still felt a little out of place among the little kids. Shyly, I asked the booth lady if there was enough for us to just make one. She smiled and said that this isn't just for the kids, but also the kids at heart. That would be us! With more concentration then we've exerted all day, we sat down to create our masterpieces. Apparently, 4 years of college comes in handy because ours turned out to be amazing creations. Our fellow creators began to turn to us for advice on the art of tissue flower folding. Maybe there is such thing as a time travel machine because for those few minutes I felt like I was back in elementary school where the massive size of the world was an exciting adventure and life was much more hands on.
Towards the end of the day we were tired and basically walked in silence. This is when, being the nosy person that I am, I listen in on people's conversations. Some friends are taking pictures and the self-proclaimed prettiest was requesting a lot of single shots. The males of the group happily oblige. A mother was educating her son on the history of the cherry blossoms. I didn't know Japan gave us actual trees and not just seeds. An elderly couple does touristy poses under the Washington monument. I wonder if they ever got to take pictures like these in their youth. A couple embraces in silence as if the camera of the world was zoomed in on them.
The tidal basin is basically a giant pond that the Potomac River flows into. The cherry blossoms are planted right around the rim where some are so close that they hang over the sides of the railing, dipping their branches into the water. We were trying to meet a friend of mine here, but between the noise and the people, we couldn't find each other. We spent a lot of time being confused and walking around in circles. Makes me think, how even when two people are in the same area and are actively looking - they still can't find each other. How everyone in your life, how you met and how your relationships form, there's a lot of fate to it.
Even if you push for it, it won't necessarily happen. And just because you don't want it, doesn't mean it won't creep into your life. Do we defy fate and keep looking? Or take a leap of faith and pray everything works out for the best?