Bloomwatch 2005

Many parks and other public areas in Japan are famous for their stands of flowering trees. When the trees are in bloom, they attract locals and even tourists from far away, who enjoy relaxing, ambling walks and picnics among the trees. Sounds very stress-relieving, doesn't it?

One such park is Makuyama Park, located in the town of Yugawara, in Naragawa Prefecture. The park's four thousand plum trees attract people who come to enjoy the red and white blossoms around this time of year. As of today, reports one national newspaper in Japan, roughly 70 percent of the trees have blossomed. The very fact that this sort of story would make the front page of a national newspaper is heartening. Sometimes, just reading about this sort of story allows one to take a break from it all. You can just imagine how refreshing it would be to walk among the bright pink and white blossoms.

Of course, cherry blossoms are traditionally considered the most appealing in Japan, but they won't be in bloom for a few more weeks. In fact, in the beginning of springtime, the blooming of cherry trees across the country is reported nightly on the news, like the weather or a sporting event. Newscasters talk about the "cherry blossom front" (sakura zensen), the wave of opening cherry blossoms that starts at the warmer southern end of the country and moves slowly northward with the spring weather.

But cherry trees, plum trees, and other blossoming plant life are only in bloom for a short time. Once the trees bloom, you have only a week or so to get out and enjoy them. There's a lesson there: the best things to enjoy are usually only available for a limited time. We have to make an effort to get out and enjoy them, instead of putting it off until it's too late.

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DOUBLE your green tea's health benefits!

I know this sounds like one of those too-good-to-be-true statements that precedes an ad from a less-than-reputable company, but it's not -- it's true! You can easily DOUBLE the health benefit of your green tea. What's more, it's easy and free, and we won't charge you anything for the information. Here goes.

When you drink your green tea (preferable Mellow Monk green tea), stop and take a break. Take a break while you're preparing the tea, and when you're drinking it. Close your eyes and daydream or reflect on something pleasant. Take a free vacation somewhere. Or stare out the window, preferably at something distant. As you do this, breathe deeply. In deeply, out deeply. That's it: that's the secret. You've just roughly doubled the health benefit of your green tea by taking a break. By stepping back from the world. By stepping out of the back door for a moment. By doing this, you've helped reduce your stress, which is just as bad for you as the Bad Stuff your green tea is dealing with chemically. You've got to drink the green tea as part of an experience that also includes spiritual re-energizing as its goal. All you need to do is take a break. Don't make the tea hurriedly, then gulp it down as you start staring into the computer screen again. Take a break and focus, concentrate, on the tea's flavor and aroma. On the warmth of the teacup.

That, in a nutshell, is the Mellow Monk philosophy of green tea.

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