Reclaiming & Reviving 🌸✨

Hello wanderer of the internet!

I have once again managed to disappear from my blog for a couple months. I’m still trying to figure out how to get back into my creative passions such as YouTube, blogging, and art, while fitting it in my busy schedule as a mother, wife, and chronically ill person. My weekly tasks and duties are always changing, so it’s hard to find a way to figure everything out the way I want. I’m getting there, though!

Today I wanted to share with you a trip that my household got to take last week. Cherry blossoms bloom for a very short period of time, usually early or mid-spring. It depends on the region. If you know anything about their blooming period, you’d know that areas like Washington D.C. here in the USA, as well as many regions of Japan, have entire festivals for “Hanami” (direct translation of “flower viewing”, used to describe the period which people go to view the cherry blossoms in their peak bloom). Here in the midwest/Illinois, they are not in abundance everywhere, meaning most people would need to travel a few hours minimum to see them. However, over in the Champaign-Urbana area, the arboretum at UIUC has a facility called Japan House, which hosts a few themed, culturally significant gardens, as well as an allee of cherry blossom trees. My first year of going was in their blooms of 2021, which I adored and loved being able to experience. I also went the following year, in 2022, when my daughter was only 6 days old, and I took both her and my oldest, Dallas, with me. That was the last time I was able to go. 

I had been anticipating going this year for months ahead of time, excitedly awaiting the day that they’d hit peak bloom. Last Wednesday, it was announced that the blossoms had reached their peak. So the following day, Charles, the kids, and I all drove over there to view them together after the oldest, Dallas, was out of school.

We didn’t get to stay quite as long as we wanted, as the kids were getting quite antsy and it was also intermittently raining. However, we got to enjoy our time and managed to capture a bunch of cute photos, both of us and of the blossoms themselves, which I will share below.

This was a very special day for me, for many reasons. If you know me, you know cherry blossoms are my favorite flower. Not only for their beauty, but for their symbolism. The fleeting nature of their blooming period is a reminder of how all things in life, even the most beautiful, are temporary. Hanami asks us to practice mindfulness and enjoy the moment for what it is right now.

Another reason this was so important to me, was because the last time I went to view the blossoms, I was with our abuser. Sometimes, as someone who struggles with C-PTSD and the trauma of what that person had done to harm me and my children in the past, it can be hard to return to places that are significant to me, if the perpetrator of so many bad memories was at one point there to experience it with us. Finally going for the first time since separating and going no contact with that person was a moment of empowerment for me. I got to reclaim something that was very sentimental and important to me, that our prior connection took away, and also make such wonderful memories by enjoying it with my family. The smiles and laughs that day, and the energy as a whole, made me all the more appreciative of the moment, and of our current family dynamic.

Something unrelated I want to share that is also exciting, I am finally getting back into my YouTube videos and shorts! I posted my first revival vlog a few weeks ago, and shared a new art short where I drew some fanart for the Minecraft movie on Tuesday! I have linked both of them below for your viewing pleasure.

Thank you for taking the time to read! Write again soon!

Signing off,
-ShelbiLynn (stopitshelbi)