O-HIGAN

Today is officially Shubun-no-hi, the autumnal equinox (also called O-higan or simply higan), brought first to mind for me (as usual) by earlier swathes of crimson higanbana (lit.: autumnal equinox flower; cluster amaryllis; spider lily) rising here and there on straight jade stems along the downmountain roadside (I saw the first one there 3 days ago; today they're blooming in my garden, 500 meters upmountain from there), and in cloudy red patches of eye-catching brushstrokes placed in random genius along the slopes of the just-shorn rice paddies, making the entire scene an astonishing work of art far bigger than the Louvre... But I never knew there were also white higanbana...

Such are the small but deep rewards of living just another day.