Balance

         This is Abiki-koen, a run-of-the-mill kind of park such as might be seen in any Japanese town.  Nevertheless, it is about this park and the events which transpired there this day that I have chosen to write about.

          Truth be told, nothing particularly remarkable occurred. For certain, today could not qualify as the "big event" for which I was waiting to blog about. However, the mundane nature of the day is one of the most significant determinants in my decision to commit my musings to electronic perpetuity.

          Quite simply, today was a perfect day. The weather was ideal for a day at the park with my kids; warm enough to wear the lightest of garments, yet not so oppressively hot as to make the most meagre physical exertion seem intolerable. The weather alone would have been enough to have set me into a positive frame of mind. Add to that the particularly good behaviour of my children today - studying finished in good time, hair and teeth brushed sans admonitions, the absence of bickering - then it is not surprising that I was soon lulled into a state of reverie. The purr of the postman's moped, the soothing trickle of the fountain, the whirr of bicycle chains clicking over sprockets, the gentle laughter of children, the shuffling of tiny training shoes scuffing the sandy ground, the distant cawing of crows and the flutter of pigeon wings - all these sounds coalesced to form the auditory equivalent of a soporific massage.

          Along with the sounds, the sights in the park also transpired to mollify my mind. The sunlight seemed to transfigure each surface which it floated down upon. I was struck by the countless shades of green mottling a certain tree, by the aesthetic, Pre-Raphaelite precision with which the yellowing leaves seemed to have been placed amongst the green, the way the sunlight dispersed through the branches creating ethereal striations, and how it sparkled upon the cobwebs which veiled a nearby bush.

          Amidst this enveloping, sensual scenery were performed a profusion of enticing dramas. My heart warmed to the elderly gentlemen who wandered around the park picking up the occasional piece of litter and placing it gently into the bin. A sense of pride overwhelmed me as Valerie and Arthur swung their way across the entire length of the monkey bars for the first time ever. I smiled as I watched a grandmother and her grandson investigating, with intense fascination, the markings on the molted feather of a pigeon. Arthur and his friends exploring the hidden, insect inhabited worlds uncovered by the removal of a brick which marked the boundaries of a flower bed. A lithe and graceful cartwheeling girl, obviously more adept at ballet than her spirited brothers, attempting to join them in their tree-climbing adventures. She couldn't even make it to the first branch, but at least she tried before spinning and cartwheeling away into her elegant abstractions. I was fascinated by the seemingly endless variety of games which could be played using a ball attached to a piece of elastic; a variation on freeze-tag with the ball as a projectile hand; a planet orbiting a solar Valerie; a ground-skimming, rotating skipping rope and many other adaptations. Arthur insisting that a dragon lived inside a park light - I would not discourage such a belief - and drawing so much joy from the simple act of riding someone else's bicycle around the park for a change.

The dragon's lair

A microcosm awaits the eager explorer beneath these bricks

          As I said, today was not particularly momentous. The harmonious feeling of oneness in which I was swathed was certainly no epiphany. I was in a park, not set upon the road to Damascus. However, the day did present me with a gentle reminder that we are the momentary residents of a world overflowing with a bounteous array of wonders and that, amidst the bustle and cacophony of modern life, we need, from time to time, to open ourselves up to the so often overlooked delights that abound. As such, today was very ordinary; ordinary in the most magical and miraculous sense of the word.