It feels like yesterday when my son and I were walking past the rice fields on our way home from kindergarten while looking at the little tadpoles swimming around the all but non-existent rice plants. It was late spring and there was a long hot summer lying before us, nature outings, trips to the beach, pick-nicks and cool days in air conditioned malls. Now this summer somehow has already past and the rice fields seem ready to be harvested and the frogs have longs since left their tadpole existence and are soon done with this year’s quaking.
It has been so quick (but at the same time it sure feels like our son has grown much more than a summer’s worth). The warm humid summer is almost gone and the air has felt a bit different lately, there is a hint of autumn in the wind and a few yellow leaves on some trees. A festival of green is one way to describe spring and summer here, so many different tones, from the bright juicy shades in spring to the mature greens ending summer. I almost dare not say that fall is around the corner for fear of jinxing it, but I really long for the cooler days to come and for colors other than green to enjoy in nature.
While waiting for the kindergarten bus other day I caught myself daydreaming, reminiscing about sitting by a mountain stream, listening to water making its way around a bend in the little river, seeing red trees on a steep mountain side in front of me – four years ago now in the mountains close to Tokyo. And although I remember it like yesterday, it feels more like a lifetime ago. In a way it really was another life – the life without a son. I wish I could take him there, it was such a beautiful place, take the train together, going the opposite direction of all the commuters, changing trains, boarding the short one bound for the mountains, looking out the window as the nature changes, getting off at the terminus and starting our hike, sharing a few words with the elderly hikers who just like us were taking the early morning train to go to the mountains. We would have a pick-nick on the pebbles by the stream, make stone sculptures, and feel the water running through our fingers. Maybe one day…
While waiting I looked at the crops in the rice fields dancing in the wind and beyond them the little mountain just behind our home. We also do have beautiful nature close by and as soon as autumn really is here, we will definitely go for a pick-nick in our mountains instead.
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