Memorizing Beauty Before It Vanishes

First, to my paid subscribers, I want to let you know that I’ve made this publication entirely free and paused all paid subscriptions indefinitely. This space was always meant to be quiet, reflective, and accessible, and removing the paywall feels more in keeping with the spirit of my writing. Your interest in my work and willingness to back it financially have meant more than I can say.

I’m deeply grateful for your support, both paid and free subscribers, and I hope you’ll stay with me now that I am returning to regular posting. I have been on a writing hiatus as I’ve transitioned to a bicoastal living arrangement. I still have my psychotherapy practice in the Bay Area and now, an apartment in DC.

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Memorizing Beauty Before It Vanishes

Every spring in Washington, D.C., the cherry blossoms arrive like a sigh.
Soft, fleeting, impossible not to notice.

And yet, what struck me most this year was not the blossoms themselves, but how people moved among them. Sure, people had their phones out taking selfies in front of the iconic Washington Monument and Jefferson Monuments, but there was also a quiet reverence, an almost unspoken agreement.

This wasn’t a crowd of clamoring tourists. It was something closer to a collective pause. It was as if everyone had checked the weather app and knew the next day would bring a wild storm. The blossoms would be faded or completely gone by the morning. They were trying to memorize beauty before it vanished.

This is what impermanence teaches us. Not how to hold on tighter, but how to be present — to feel a moment fully, even as we know it will slip away.

But sometimes, standing still under a canopy of soft petals, we remember how to look. We remember what it is to witness the world rather than capture it—to be in it, not outside of it.

This is a quiet place.
There’s no commentary needed.
Only breath, and the hush that falls when beauty, time, and attention meet.

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Nothing is more uplifting than walking from the Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall to the Washington Monument. Whenever I meander through the Vietnam, World War II, and Korean War Veterans war memorials—the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial and the Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Memorials—I deeply revere what we’ve accomplished as a country.

The structure of World Peace cannot be the work of one man, or one party, or one nation. It must be a peace which rests on the cooperative effort of the whole world.

~Eleanor Roosevelt

Sure enough, a great storm brought most of the cherry blossoms to the ground that night. I won’t forget the collective joy at viewing them with a crowd of strangers brought together to witness beauty, and remember that history, like the seasons, changes in cycles.