It has been several years now since I was walking home one day, and while passing under a large flowering tree covered in light pink blossoms, had the thought to be still and take it in for ten breaths.
It takes about a minute and a half, and the impact of staying focused, but open and receptive for that long is amazing. It seats the experience deeply in my memory.
Today I walked home past that tree again. Though still covered in blossoms, many have fallen and lie in the gutters or in little piles against a brick wall. I reached down and picked up a handful of petals, first struck by their coolness, then by the silky texture, and finally by their lightness and seeming fragility.
Then I thought about the profligacy of nature - that this tree, after resting through a long, cold, winter, grew these many thousands of petals using energy and nutrients stored up from last year, and then, after just a couple of weeks, will shed them all to be recycled back into the earth.
I enjoyed another ten breaths standing under the flower-laden branches looking up through the pale petals to the blue sky beyond.
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