On My Walk – Cherry Blossoms

February 17th, 2014

The blossoms of cherry trees are lovely on the tree and off. And especially as they float to the ground.  Seeing the petals covering the sidewalk and blown into the edges of the street reminds me of a story that I wish I could find online where it would be written in a much more elegant form.  But I couldn’t so here are my memories:

There was a Buddhist Monastery with a cherry tree growing in the garden near a path.  A young monk was given the job to clean up the gardens and grounds. He diligently raked up all the fallen leaves and the flower petals on the ground of the now blooming cherry tree.  The path was cleared and the garden raked clean.  The young monk went to find the master to show him his work.  When the master came to view the garden he looked for a few minutes, walked over to the cherry tree and shook it so flower blossoms silently floated to the ground.  He turned to the young monk and said: “now it is perfect.”