When Blossoms Fall

With the eventual, expected, arrival of spring seemingly around the corner, although the idea of warm spring days are somewhat hard to grasp as I’m listening to freezing rain battering my windows while I write this, the rebirth of nature and its comparative value to life is an interesting idea to explore. The turning of the season from winter to spring is an event that has significant influence in human history, mythology and thought. This is seen with the stories of Persephone returning from underworld as being the only thing that could placate Demeter’s grief allowing the world and nature to live, to naming political uprisings as various springs as in: The Prague Spring, the Arab Spring and so on. The regenerative nature and the rebirth that comes with spring is not lost on any person. One of the emblematic signs that spring has arrived and is breaking the bonds of winter is the growth of blossoms on fruit trees. Their bright white and other coloured petals lift spirits and seemingly change landscapes over night.

The theme of fruit blossoms is something that appealed to me not only for their transformative nature but because even as they begin to fall they still have more to offer. In the movie The Last Samurai the character of Katsumoto is examaning a cherry tree’s blossoms and says: “The perfect blossom is a rare thing. You could spend your life looking for one and it would not be a wasted life.” Springtime blossoms are a favourite of mine because of their fleeting beauty. I’ve spent many spring days watching the blossoms shine in the sun, or being fed on by bees and other insects. I have never grown a tree to the size of the ones in The Last Samurai although even a few branches with blossoms in spring are enough to help transport my mind away from the doldrums of everyday life, the stresses of work and the modern world. They arrive early in the regenerative time of the year and give any scenery a sense of life that even a tree full with leaves can’t accomplish. Perhaps it’s how it compares to the bleakness and bare appearance of winter, but in any case it is one of the best times of the year.

But the blossoms tell other stories rather than just that of the passing of winter for the coming of spring and eventual summer. They are symbolic of the cyclical nature of life and the manner in which most events which happen. They start beautiful and full of potential, giving food and life to insects and other pollinators. They brighten a scenery still recovering from the harshness of winter, even brightening a grey cloudy sky behind them. Although in this state despite providing literal life to some and a psychological lifeline to others they are extremely fragile and prone to damage. An unseasonable ice storm or high winds can strip the petals off of the flowers and leave them bare and bleak like the trees they grow on through most of winter. Even if they aren’t cut short by weather events or other factors, they are destined to end this way with each petal individually falling off as the climate warms up and everything transitions from spring towards summer.

The death of the blossoms, as it were, isn’t need for mourning though, as they are only giving way to the next phase of their life cycle. As the blossoms slowly fall, leaves on trees emerge from their buds and the grass below becomes greener, the general weather warms and eventually what is left from the blossoms is what will grow into the fruit that it was meant to be.

Alternatively, there are numerous breeds of plant whose flowers don’t fall and don’t lose their spring-like regenerative beauty, some of these occur naturally, others were bred to be this way. But across both the few naturally occurring perpetual flowers and their man-made counterparts they have one thing in common: their appearance remains but they provide nothing more. Once the seasons eventually return to cold winds and short days, their petals will also wilt and fall and they will leave nothing, often needing to be replaced with a whole new plant the next growing season.

With that, the metaphoric value of falling blossoms becomes clearer. Everything changes, and the early or current iteration of something will be desirable, beautiful, harmonious and even productive. But with every positive feature the inherent fragility of it becomes more and more pronounced. This state will change, and it may while changing, for a time, resemble an earlier bleaker time but the bleakness is also transitory. Allowing the blossoms to fall leaves room for growth of something new something that in the early days of spring you may not know you need or want. Like the petals fall from their flower sometimes people need to give the room needed for change and allow something else to grow. It doesn’t mean it’s better, it doesn’t need to diminish what preceded it but it does need to give way for the next phase. Otherwise like the flowers whose petals remain from spring to winter, they will pass, but their artificial existence won’t leave anything in their wake, and will need far more intervention to be able to return again.

So with spring coming, enjoy the blossoms that will grow and fill the branches of countless trees. Their colours and delicate nature will brighten the landscape and provide a reminder of warmer days to come. Embrace their impermanence and watch as the petals fall and blanket the ground around the tree, because the blossom dropping its petals as the weather warms is the perfect blossom.

When Blossoms Fall

Winter thaws and leaves turn green

The hive is buzzing for the queen

The sun warms up the blossoms grow

Life's forward move will overthrow

One by one the petals fall

Signalled by the finch's call

Whistle happy little bird

The death of flowers made absurd

Time moves forward one by one

Each season changed by burning sun

Blossoms taken by deaths duty

This the price for life's beauty.

Impermanence the flowers life

Their fall to ground abundantly rife

The flower’s beauty short and fleeting

Its cycle to death quickly completing

Wilted petals a metaphor

For a fate we all abhor

Beauty lost over time

Replaced with life come to its prime.

So stay with me new spring flower

Bringing comfort in last hour

While the sun is bright the shadows tall

When it sets our petals fall.