I heard the whisper of the promise of spring on the wind and felt the soft kiss of of the warming sun on my face. As I walked among the newly born blossoms of the cherry trees I was captivated by the transcendent beauty of the fleeting glimpse of eternity bestowed on me in the fragile,fragrant explosion of new life. Then I slept the fevered unsleep borne of a raging torrent of early spring rain and wind to awaken soaked to the soul in bone cold and covered by the bittersweetness of petals torn from the trees before their time. And as the windswept blossoms swirled around me, I slowly walked through the driving rain,painfully alive but unfeeling of pain,toward the solace hidden in the rising sun.