Refocusing with a ride to the park.

Yesterday I hit a quiet patch. In a job that has multiple deadlines each day, I know that these quiet spots don't come often and are usually short. Brilliant that it coincided with a warm, sunny day. So what better thing to do than go for a ride? The last time I rode to my favourite big park was November, so it was time! After lunch I told my distance-learning teens where I was headed, and took off with a flask of coffee and a book in my basket.

Well the park was a different sight to November. We're on the edge of the most beautiful time in Tokyo: spring. A time when there seems to be different flowers on show every week for about two months.

The most common cherry blossoms weren't out yet (and I'm glad they weren't because this week they would have been blown away), but there were some early bloomers and a general sense of hope in the air. Quite different to what sitting at home and looking at social media is giving me.

The passage that my husband preached on so often when were were in Australia in 2018 comes to mind: Matthew 6: 19-21,25-27:

19 ‘Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. 20 But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also... 25 ‘Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? 26 Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27 Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life? (NIV)

We worry and fuss, about the things we treasure here on earth being messed up (like plans and freedom). We worry about food and clothes and health. But "look at the birds of the air..." (or I could add, "the flowers"). And most pointedly: "Can we add a single hour to our lives by worrying?"

So here are some flowers and other sights from my ride yesterday for you to enjoy. Maybe they'll help you refocus on our heavenly Father who knows what we need and is not taken by surprise by any of this.

One of the early bloomers in the Cherry Blossom family.

Ready to burst. This is one of the most popular species of Cherry Blossom.

Always love the gum tree in this park. It's a piece of Australia that we rarely see here.

Rape Seed flowers that are commonly planted near Cherry Blossom trees
 in  Japan. They make a nice contrast.

Daffodils, always delightful.

I've been riding past banks covered with this green plant and sprinkled with cute flowers (see below). This time I stopped to take a photo.

I couldn't get close enough to get a good shot on my phone, but there's at least half a dozen turtles sunning themselves here.

I enjoy riding this path, instead of on the roads. It is a bike/footpath only, between houses. It exists, I think, because it goes along the line of some high voltage power lines. But locals (and the local government?) have made it a very pleasant place to traverse.