June
I watch as the color of hydrangea buds deepens day by day waiting for them to blossom.
How many blooms will there be this year?
Fatsia leaves too, spreading their open hands in the garden, have turned a darker green,
Amid the dense foliage of plants and trees in the green paddies, blooming thistles compete to show their faces, remarkably accenting the green with their reddish purple blossoms.
Before I knew it I had picked two or three and arranged them with delicate green leaves of oleaster and placed the arrangement in front of an ancient folding screen in the Japanese room.
A chorus of frogs singing in the inundated rice paddies could be heard, and with the arrival of rainy season I was reminded again this year that summer was just around the corner.
Tracing the seasons throughout the course of a year has given me a feeling of the closeness of surrounding nature.
In tropical South-east Asia, seasons are identified by the ripening of fruits.
In Japan, however, there is danger of losing one’s sense of seasons, but there are other indications of change in season. The fields and mountains, plants and trees beside the path, cloud movement, the color of the sky, colors at sunset and in addition the way the wind blows all indicate the season.
The important thing is to have a heart that is in touch with nature, isn’t it?
This is the sure way to richness of heart.
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