In my red glasses: Cherry Blossoms

I have a funny story about cherry blossoms. Back in 2009, two months after I and my family arrived in the US, we decided to swing by the Cherry Blossom Festival after we finished submitting some papers to the Philippine Embassy in DC. Unfortunately, we had no idea how to take public transportation from the embassy to the Tidal Basin where the trees are in abundance, so I just took pictures of the ones that we passed on the way back to the train station.

Me: "There it is! There it is!"

If you look closely, though, you can see that it's not a cherry tree. I actually had a disagreement with my father about what they were supposed to look like, because I vaguely remembered this beautiful scene in Mulan:


Fa Zhou: My, what beautiful blossoms we have this year. But look, this one's late. But I'll bet that when it blooms, it will be the most beautiful of all.

and thought that these bigger blooms must of course (with undying resolution) be the popular Sakura. It turned out that the pictures I took were mostly of magnolia trees, and later on I also found out that the Chinese word mùlán (which the heroine is named after) refers to the magnolia. Whoops! And even though my father was resigned to the fact that I would remain stubborn on that topic (Sorry, Pa, you were right all along! Hehe), we both agreed that the tree in the picture below was really beautiful and we had to have a picture taken underneath it despite the moderate traffic surrounding the area. Yes, it's the right tree this time haha.

4 years ago

Besides being beautiful to look at, Sakura trees are popular due to their ephemeral nature and symbolism (the ones that are planted along the Tidal Basin were gifts from the Japanese government). They are reminders of how life is short and should be lived to the fullest, keeping in mind, of course, that we also have responsibilities that go along with the freedom we're given, one of which is to make each others' lives fuller as well.

This reminds me, since the coming weeks will be the peak time to visit the Tidal Basin and have your ~~profile~~ pictures taken in front of cherry blossoms, why not dress up and look your best at the same time? Luckily for you ladies, I've picked out dresses that will highlight both your beauty and that of your natural backdrop. The best colors I think that would complement the flowers are: hot pink, light pink, light blue, mint, light green, cream and white.

No yellows, oranges, and dark colors unless you want to blend in with the branches hehe

Add to your gorgeous dress (and self) a heartfelt smile, and you'll surely have a portrait to remember. Sigh, I hope I will have the time to go there in the coming days :)