When the cherry Blossoms Fall

Spring is a wonderful time in Japan. The cold of winter fades away, green shoots of new grass poke up through the soil, and the days gradually warm. Cherry trees, leafless all winter, sprout buds on the ends of their branches that bulge, then blast forth in a riot of red and white cherry blossoms.

This is a time of high anticipation, of new life and new energy, color filling in for the dreary gray of winter. Freshness fills the air.

We all experience cherry blossom time. It's that wonderful day when you first show up for work at a new job, the day you announce the opening of your business, your wedding day, all days of anticipation when everything you do seems right.

Then the blossoms fade and morph into cherries, tasty and juicy, that sit on the tree in their dark glory, soaking up the sun and maturing, quietly and strongly. The anticipation has worn off and the hard work has begun, the work of making food for the cherry pits that will one day fall to the ground and wait their turn to become new cherry trees.

We all also experience cherry time. Our jobs and businesses grow and mature. We become comfortable with our duties, which become almost routine. It's not as exciting, it's the time of getting the work done.

Then the cherries fall from the trees. Some are picked and go into jam, cherry baskets, pies, and ice cream sodas. Some simply fall to the ground, where they rot, releasing the cherry pit and feeding it until it can take root in the soil and grow into a bigger tree.

This is the time when everything changes and everyone goes their separate ways. It's the day when businesses grow and businesses stagnate. It's the time of uncertainty when seeming failure can suddenly turn to triumph.

Every blossom's time must end; every cherry must fall from the tree. Which will you be: the cherry that makes pie, sits on the soda, makes jam and then vanishes? Or will you be the one that takes a risk, winds up on the ground rotting, and hangs in there to create something new and far better than ever existed before.

It's your choice, the easy road to nowhere or the rocky road to success.