Tanabata

As I embrace the concept of pursuing a life of simplicity the more time I have to listen to the hopes and dreams and wishes of others. I love the opportunity to connect with each of my children again as adults.

And yet, I love discovering that they still have child-like ways of looking at the world; that they still embrace magic, fantasy, silliness and traditions.

For the past week Georgia had been talking about celebrating Tanabata - a Japanese tradition where people write their wishes on coloured pieces of paper, tie them to branches of bamboo and float them down a stream. This is traditionally done on July 7 or August 7, depending on the region. 

It is said that Tanabata originated over 2000 years ago when a weaver princess named Orihime met a cow herder prince named Hikoboshi. They spent all their time playing in space and forgot about their responsibilities. The king was angry with them and banished them both to different ends of the Milky Way, only allowing them to meet on the seventh day of the seventh month each lunar year.

The word Tanabata literally means "night of the seventh". It is also known as the Star Festival and as Orihime and Hikoboshi are only allowed to meet on this night the people often pray for fair weather.

Unfortunately our Tanabata Festival lands right in the middle of winter so chances of the weather being fair were slim. We each wrote wishes on coloured pieces of paper - Sarah and Chloe choosing to fold theirs into paper cranes, Tim and I rolled ours into scrolls and Georgia wrote hers on the more traditional strips of paper. It was freezing cold when Georgia and I made our way down to the beach to look for a branch. Georgia was sure that the lightweight wood we found was similar to bamboo. As we tied our wishes to it the rain started and quickly turned into a downpour complete with hailstones. We threw the branch into the sea but it took several attempts because the wind kept bringing it back in. By the time we made our way back to the car we were soaking wet but laughing fit to burst! "That was fun!" Georgia exclaimed; and I had to agree it was. I'm sure the men who were standing on the beach fishing thought we were mad!

Poor Orihime and Hikoboshi didn't have a lovely night to meet in Australia but hopefully they'll grant our wishes because of our efforts anyway.

And what feels really, really good is that just for a little while we connected with childhood and preserved some of its magic and innocence for us to remember always.