Blowing in the wind

It was during spring time, a couple of years ago, around the same time of the year as now. I was walking home back from the gym, and I had to pass through a large college campus to get to the bus station. It was a rather long walk, but it was really enjoyable, because the campus was full of trees, flowers and grass, and there weren't that many people outside that day, perhaps the students were on spring break.

I was feeling really good, calm, relaxed, enjoying the sound of wind blowing through the tree leaves. It had been a good workout, it left me with that amazing feeling of happy exhaustion, the post-exercise endorphin release was doing its job. I really cherished those moments, they were times during which I really felt at peace with the world and myself.

Walking down a lonely pathway, something bright and colorful catches my attention when looking to my side. I usually don't pay attention to these kind of things, but there was this blooming tree that seemed to stand out from everything else. For some reason, I stopped walking, it was one of the most beautiful things I had ever seen in my life, and couple with me feeling awesome, I had to take a picture of it.

Before I can take out my phone, a gust of wind starts blowing out of nowhere, pulling away what seemed to be a million flower petals from the tree, which then start floating away like puffy snowflakes. It seemed something out of a beautifully shot Chinese movie, specifically, it reminded me of the red petals scene from the movie Hero (this is what I'm talking about), the difference being that my tree was all white.

This only lasted for a couple of seconds, but it seemed like time stopped for a little while and because nobody was around, I felt like I was watching a spectacle from nature meant to be seen only by me. It was a perfectly simple moment, a type of "wake up and smell the roses" intermission from life and I'll always remember it.

Here's the picture that I took shortly after, I'm really glad I was able to come across it again.