November 30, 2022
“Praise God, sun and moon, praise God, you morning stars; Praise god, high heaven, praise God, heavenly rain clouds; Praise, oh let them praise the name of God.” Psalm 148:3 The Message, adapted
Did you know that the work for fireworks in Japanese is hanabi, “fire flowers?” Makes sense to me when I think about it. Hanabi also means, “the collection of every flower that once bloomed and was there for us.”
Fire-Flowers Over Cinderella’s Castle
“The collection of every flower that once bloomed and was there for us” invokes images of flowers and trees in blossom. Going deeper, the images of people whose lives have impacted us, comes to mind.
I discreetly scattered small amount of my sister Carol’s ashes in a small garden area near Cinderella’s Castle in Disney World. Carol loved amusement parks (a gene I didn’t inherit), she loved her nieces and nephews and great nieces and nephews (including my four grandchildren), and of the three of us Findlay sisters, she was the princess. She’d have loved accompanying us to the Magic Kingdom and walking with my two little granddaughters dressed up in their princess outfits.
What I hadn’t thought through were the fire flowers, specifically how they would be changed by my small act of remembrance. As I watched them the first evening, I was hit by the notion that some of Carol might very well become a part of the display. She’d have loved that too! The fireworks became a small slice of eternity for a moment, fire flowers like the stars of heaven, the smoke became nebula in the vast expanse of the universe, viewed by the living-in-this-time and the living-in-life-eternal. All of us praising God for sun, moon, and stars.
With gratitude for the collection of every flower that once bloomed and was there for us. ~ Anne
Wayfinding 