under the cherry blossoms

I love cherry blossom time, Ohanami.  I used to teach ESL to Japanese students, and I learned from them about this wonderful festival.  I also learned to decorate my house at cherry blossom time, and I planted my own cherry blossom tree.  What is it about the cherry blossoms?  It is their beauty and how ephemeral it is.  Much like life itself, we must catch hold and enjoy, in the fleeting moments we can.  Particularly poignant for me, is the jacket I painted on the woman under the cherry blossom tree.  It was my mother's Chinese jacket, and I remember seeing her, looking as radiantly beautiful as a cherry blossom tree  in full bloom, when she wore it.  Now, like the cherry blossoms, she is gone.  But in this painting, remembered and cherished by me.