Walking through High Park during cherry blossom season feels almost unreal.
Everywhere you look, soft pink petals hang overhead like clouds suspended in time. People slow down when they walk beneath them. Conversations become quieter. Phones come out, photos get taken, and for a brief moment, thousands of strangers seem united by the same silent thought:
This is beautiful.
But what struck me most this year was not just the beauty of the blossoms.
It was how temporary they are.
The cherry blossoms only truly peak for about 4 to 10 days each year. Then the wind comes, the petals fall, and the trees return to being ordinary green until next spring.
And suddenly, I realized how much they remind me of bubbles.
Bubbles are beautiful because they disappear.
If bubbles never popped, we probably wouldn’t stop to admire them. We wouldn’t chase them, photograph them, or smile when sunlight dances across their colors. Their fragility is what makes them magical.
Cherry blossoms feel the same way.
People travel across cities just to experience something they know won’t last. They stand beneath the trees knowing the moment is already slipping away while they’re inside it.
And somehow, that makes the experience even more meaningful.
I think life works that way too.
The moments that stay with us most deeply are often temporary ones. Childhood summers. Movie nights with family. Holding someone’s hand. Watching your kids grow up. Even grief teaches us this truth — the pain exists because something beautiful mattered.
Impermanence gives value to moments.
Walking through the blossoms, petals drifting through the air like floating pink bubbles, I felt reminded of why I’ve always connected so deeply to bubbles themselves. They quietly teach the same lesson nature does every spring:
Beauty does not need to last forever to matter.
In fact, sometimes the most breathtaking things only exist because they don’t.
Maybe that’s why people smile at bubbles.
Maybe that’s why people gather beneath cherry blossoms.
For a brief moment, both invite us to stop rushing through life and simply be present.
And maybe that fleetingness is not something to fear.
Maybe it’s the very thing that makes life beautiful.
