quiet place

Last spring, when the country was heavenly what with the sakura in full bloom, I found this quiet little park just a block away from our apartment. Surrounded by ginko and sakura trees, there was a small slide, some teeny weeny seesaw-equivalent contraption with a panda's face and best of all, a swing. Albeit there's just one (no chance for "couple swings"), it somehow made my quiet place perfect. Swinging to and fro, I watched as the sakura flew around me as the wind blew.

Aaahhh, heavenly. And as the wind blew and the sakura swirled about and around, I raised my face skyward, smiled, and thought of happy things...and things that I longed for, things I wished for...

I enjoyed hanging out there so much that I caught a cold (it was still quite chilly) hahaha.

This evening, to sweat out bad feelings that are yet again starting to creep on me and to shake away the sleepiness that I'd surely feel tomorrow at the office if I won't exercise or take alcohol (haha!), I convinced myself to jog after having dinner at my place. Was almost tempted to stay at home to watch the Synchronized swimming at the Beijing Olympics on TV but just thinking of the heavy dinner I had made me haul myself up from my comfortable covers (yes, I was lying on the bed as I watched tv since I need to peek under the keyboard to actually see my monitor..hahaha).

From Bandobashi, I crossed the market, and chose streets and alleys, those lighted ones at least, where I was least likely to cross paths with people from the office (I had on, real skimpy shorts you see..haha). On to Yoshinocho and then finally round the oval tracks of Maita Park. I was looking forward to a culmination of my exercises at the swings in the Maita Park but the swings were crowded hence I decided to wind down my exercise at my quiet place which I haven't visited for quite a while now.

And it was a good decision. I smiled as I sat on (my) swing and looked up at the colorful japanese lanterns that people hung around the park for the summer festivities; colorful lanters with japanese characters on them, and probably with wishes on them. As I started my swing session, a japanese family started their mini-hanabi as well. Ototo, Okasan, Otosan, Obasan and Ojisan (and even doggie) lighted one sparkler after another. Yellow, red, green, blue...it caught fire, died down. And as they lighted one firework after another, I stared, mesmerized with the light, the corners of my lips a bit upturned as in my heart, I felt happy things..things I longed for, things I wished for...

Earlier, thoughts of how eventually, you'd be alone or thoughts of how friendships might wane kept on creeping unto me as I had my jog. But I tried to shake it off, tried to smile as I put one foot forward on a steady rythmn, as I listened to some happy music on my IPod. Tried to sweat those negative vibes out.

And somehow, right there at the park, the small flame the sparklers made gave me a sense of hope. And as the kid complained how hot the end of his sticks were, somehow, I sensed the warmth in my heart, stoking the coldness and loneliness away...