memories of Asia

This amazing tree jumped out at me one drive home this week. It got me so excited because I associate this tree with the beginning of spring in Asia, particularly Korea. It looks like there are no leaves, like the blooms just appear out of bare branches, until you look more closely and notice a few green leaves. I didn't know we had them in Austin, and am now wondering if God has given this one to me in particular to add joy to my drive back and forth each day.

In Asia, this tree (I don't know the name, do you?) marked the beginning of spring. The beginning of spring in Korea, and more especially in China, was always greeted with a lot of joy because of the long, cold, dark winters. (And I love winter!) In Austin, spring comes more as kind of a run-on sentence that began with fall and had a few commas of winter thrown in. So, it's not as anticipated.

This tree sighting is part of a happy few weeks of memories that are coming back to me through phone calls from people I've known in China, whiffs of smells I only connect back to China, and meeting a lot of new people at work who ask me about China and Korea. Tonight, I have two of my best friends from my time in China coming to visit. They're coming from Pennsylvania and California and it's their first time to Texas! We're going to make a fast and furious trip at the end of the week to visit two other families from our time there. It's almost like as soon as I decide to commit to being here, the gates on the flood of memories of my "past life" have been opened to keep me from getting too comfy here. I don't mind that.