Season for Purple Clouds
My husband and I drove down to the Westside yesterday to get my car serviced. While I’m there I tried to get a few more things done like photographing the new landscape of my lease listing, showing a condominium unit to my buyer clients, and most importantly, grocery shopping at our good old Trader Joe’s! I have a feeling this is going to be my new norm: I will bunch a few different activities to get done while I’m in town.
As we drove down on 405 into town, those purple puffs scattered around in the city caught my eyes. That’s right! Those purple clouds that pops up here and there along the street as you drive through the city of the Angeles are my favorite Jacarandas. While I’ve lived in Los Angeles for the last 38 years, I’ve always loved this season when you see those purple puffs. Unless you end up parking under one of them, even the fallen blossoms make such pretty purple carpet.
While I was enjoying the lilacs in bloom up in the mountains, the jacaranda was coming out without my witness. I’ve always persisted to say there are seasons in Southern California when I hear people say, “there’s no season here.” When you’re in tune with the different vegetations, fruits you can buy at the market, and other natural phenomena, you can always appreciate the shifting seasons. I’m actually grateful that my parents instilled in me the appreciations for things like that.
Since I got here to stay 9 weeks ago (Wow, 9 weeks!), what I’ve enjoyed the most is watching the seasons change. There were snow on the ground when I got here, and we were burning fire in fireplace almost every night. Then the daffodils came, the plum blossoms bloomed, and now I have the lilac and the cherry trees are blooming. The aspen trees in front of our house were bare then, and now full of brand new leaves and starting to make the rustling sound in the wind. Now it’s warm enough for me to set up my workstation on the deck outside.
As they say, such is the nature of life: Impermanence. Things keep changing every day. It looks like things are starting to open up in the world little by little. We still don’t know what the world is going to look like when we’re able to fully engage socially. I keep thinking I must flexible and nimble to be able to go with the flow in life of ever-changing seasons.
A participant asked in my practice group on Zoom if I will go back to meeting in person or stay online. I think many of us both students and teachers are asking that question. While I certainly miss the direct contact with people, for me obviously this is a very convenient option so that I don’t have to drive down to Santa Monica. Besides, I love the fact that people who are not geographically close to the center have been attending. I had someone attend from Africa a couple of weeks ago! Based on what I hear from other teachers, I think many are liking that effect. It’s still too early to know or decide anything. I’m just going with the flow for the time being. Flexible and nimble…
#YouCanStayWithUs