uzla29 
People say “There is no perfect couple.” Or they rephrase it sometimes like “There is no perfect couple at the beginning.”
Is that true? Or the real question may be “Is perfection what we really are looking for?”
The photo was taken in Nagatoro just a few days ago. It’s the Japanese maples. The leaves turn their color to “autumn version.” Autumn leaf color are supposed to be red, orange, yellow, purple or brown. In Japan, they use the word “Momiji” which you write “red leaf.”
Too green? Not red enough? A bit early for burning red leaves?
How about this photo:
You might think that there aren’t much leaves left. They’ve fallen. A bit late for so-called-perfect-Momiji.
One of the cultivated activities in autumn, other than eating, is Momiji-gari (Leaf peeping) It may not fill your stomach but from a long long time ago, humans travel to view colored leaves and satisfy themselves with joy of appreciating the nature.
Of course they expect Momiji like this:
So the question is, “Was my Momiji-gari a failure because the leaves weren’t perfectly colored?”
Answer – Nope. I still witnessed maples changing color or confirmed that Momiji were there and fell afterwards because it was the time. I don’t even know if I was expecting “perfect Momiji” because it’s probably impossible.
How do you define which moment or what kind of status is perfect?
Every element is changing at each single moment. So are we. We are always in a process of changing. However, just changing is not the end of story nor mission completed. If we are changing anyways, don’t we want to change in a direction of “betterment”?
Keep developing, keep improving, keep changing. It sounds exhausting indeed but maybe every life is determined to change all the time. The importance is the way of changing and this depends on individual.
Perfect couple doesn’t exist. That’s why we must strive and what’s also fun about life. Imperfect Momiji still enriched my experience and provided a momentary joy.
Sato Tajima – November 12, 2021