Beginnings and Endings

A friend wrote to me about yesterday's post regarding products that are half done: ¨There's beauty in the unfinished!¨ And she's right. This got me thinking and looking until I found the following quote.

Are we to look at cherry blossoms only in full bloom, the moon only when it is cloudless? To long for the moon while looking on the rain, to lower the blinds and be unaware of the passing of the spring -- these are even more deeply moving. Branches about to blossom or gardens strewn with faded flowers are worthier of our admiration. . . . People commonly regret that the cherry blossoms scatter or that the moon sinks in the sky, and this is natural; but only an exceptionally insensitive man would say "This branch and that branch have lost their blossoms. There is nothing worth seeing now."

In all things, it is the beginnings and ends that are interesting. . . The moon that appears close to dawn after we have long waited for it moves us more profoundly than the full moon shining cloudless over a thousand leagues.. . . .

And are we to look at the moon and the cherry blossoms with our eyes alone? How much more evocative and pleasing it is to think about the spring without stirring from the house, to dream of the moonlight though we remain in our room.

--------Yoshida Kenko

Not being satisfied with my explanation yesterday about the beginnings and endings of knitting projects, I looked into what others might have to say. Also motivated by the fading of the cherry blossoms as the rain and breezes cause them to fall like snowflakes to the ground, it seemed appropriate to see what the Japanese might have to say about hanami. What I found was the quote above, by Yoshida Kenko, a Buddhist monk who wrote Essay on Idleness between 1330 and 1333. The quote is found in Section 137. In one paragraph he said more succinctly and completely than I would have been able to say in pages. Even in knitting it is the beginnings and endings that are interesting. These are the points where there is room for imagination. During the midst of the project focus is less creative.

I will leave you with blossom photos taken yesterday before the rains.

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