Acer palmatum – Japanese maple:

The bright afternoon invited a flurry of activity. I love sunny days, when spring sets the garden aflame with colour, I love walking around, touching the trees and flowers, encouraging them to bloom. The magnum opus of my garden is an “Acer palmatum” commonly referred to as a Japanese maple.

It’s breathtaking red leaves with the sun shining through, take me back to high mountains with waterfalls thundering their staccato beat and a feeling of deep peace.

The previous summer had been difficult on the trees. Red, healthy branches competed with dead brown boughs. As I plucked off the dead twigs, I wondered how easy and relieving it would be to let go of anger and rage. Make place for healthy new leaves by destroying the old, broken past.

Sometimes we just hang on to people, relationships and memories that only cause pain. Maybe spring is the perfect time to bring those memories to the forefront, pay them one last obeisance and let them go.