Humble beauty

For about two weeks out of the whole year, this modest weeping cherry bonsai is my favorite tree of my collection.

I love cherries. I love eating them, I love looking at their blossoms. I love the lenticels (small horizontal lines) that mark the shiny bark on their trunks. I love their fall color. Now, weeping cherries are probably my least favorite cherries, because their blossoms point down instead of out. There's something a little bit sad about a weeping cherry. Kind of like someone who has a beautiful smile, but always seems to look at the ground instead of straight at you.

I was photographing this tree today and decided to get underneath the tree to have a look at the blossoms straight up. The blossoms really struck me as beautiful in a way they hadn't before. Sometimes it takes getting on your knees and looking up to see the beauty in things.

In a similar theme, I also took a photo of a wild pansy of some sort that I found growing in the middle of my lawn (there are advantages to being lax about mowing). It's not a real flashy pansy like you find on the racks in front of nurseries, hardware stores, and discount centers. This one would never sell alongside those pretty ones, but interestingly, this is a durable little plant.

Fearing that the frost and snow of winter would kill off this little seedling, I dug it up and put it in a liner pot and gave it some shelter, and it survived just fine over the winter. And then I put it in a little Japanese pot a few weeks ago, even bare-rooting it and giving it completely new soil. It's already giving me flowers.

I love this little plant as much as many of my trees. I love that it was little more than a weed growing in the middle of my lawn and given a decent pot, can shine as a metaphor of grace, toughness, and beauty. I imagine this little pansy will live for years in this little pot if this winter and a bare-rooting didn't kill it.

The notions of humility, modesty, and looking for beauty are not new spiritual concepts. But living with plants and tending my bonsai garden continues to strengthen and heighten my attention beauty. The outpouring of goodness found in the beauty of nature is inexhaustible: It's there whether we're looking or not, whether we notice or not, whether we care or not.

Walk in beauty, as the blessing goes. Look for it, get down on your knees and look every which way, and see things deeply and newly. Let the plants be your teachers.