Trident Maple that I’ve been working on since 2014.I know it’s been awhile since I’ve written a blog and now that my business as grown a bit and become more stable, I’ve decided to restart the blog in 2021! New post won’t be too different than the past post though I’ll be more focused on what I’m doing in Bonsai after my apprenticeship. I still plan on talking about different horticultural and philosophical concepts of Bonsai, new concepts I’ve learned since my return from Japan and the day to day grind of a Bonsai Artist/Professional.
With the New Year, I’ve decided to start fresh with a new website! My new site will include the blog, general information and a sales areas for Ceramics and Bonsai. It will also contain all of my previous post of my time in Japan. If you subscribe to the new blog, you will get email notices every time a new article is posted.
The new site is PTBonsai.com. For those that still type in PeterTeaBonsai.com into your browser, it will automatically forward you to PTBonsai.com. See, I’m looking out for you!
Life Lessons
One day I was in my kitchen making breakfast I heard an unusually high amount of bird squawking noises outside. I looked out through the window and saw a Red-tail hawk sitting on a branch like a stone figure with a smaller bird flying around it, yelling and even at times ramming itself into the hawk and bouncing off of it as if it was really stone. I watched this happen for several minutes and though to myself, “Wow, nothing is fazing this hawk at all, and that little bird is persistent!” I returned to making my breakfast and would check on the birds every 20 minutes or so and they were still at it. At least the small bird was still at it. The hawk just stood there like nothing was going on.
After a few hours, I checked again and the birds were gone. Either the small bird was finally successful or the hawk decided to move on on its own. I know they didn’t do anything to each other because I’ve seen the hawk and the small bird on their own on several occasions. Later I looked it up and found that the small bird was a type of Mocking bird.
I never really forgot about the interactions between the two animals. It was fascinating to watch and I was impressed with both. On one hand, you have a hawk that was so stable and confident that nothing was going to move it (it even stared at me for awhile while as I watched). On the other hand, you have this smaller mocking bird not giving up until the Hawk decided to move on. I suppose there’s a metaphor of ourselves in this scene or a life lesson that can be learned or reinforced. Do we relate more to the Hawk or the Mocking Bird? Can we learn something positive from both sides? Does it have anything to do with sides as opposed to just understanding the whole situation and learning from it?
Maybe I just like looking at birds…
In Bonsai, we create, study and view Bonsai. We all individually relate or respond to different styles and shapes and it’s important that we see all sides. One of the traps that many Bonsai artist and hobbyist fall into, is snap judgements of different Bonsai styles because it either fits or doesn’t fit their concept of what Bonsai is and completely forget there’s something to learn about Bonsai in a broader perspective. Especially when the topic of naturalistic styles vs. abstract styles pop up in discussions. Perhaps like the Hawk and the Mocking Bird, we can look from the outside and see the motivations of both and look for the positives (See, there was a point to the bird story). These will be one of the many topics I discuss in future post which I’m so excited to share!
I’m very much looking forward to 2021 as I believe you all are as well. I look forward to rebuilding the blog and sharing all sorts of stories and Bonsai information (with plenty of photos) to you all.
Thank you for supporting me in the past and into the future. Take care, Happy Holidays!
Thanks for reading.
