For anyone interested, here is the meaning: (ignore all the stuff about Japan and Samurai Warriors...it's the basic symbolism that means something to us)
Cherry Blossom Tattoo - More often than not, when cherry blossoms appear in tattoo artwork, they do not appear alone. That sometimes seems a shame, for two reasons: their appearance and their meaning. The delicate and subtle beauty of these small blossoms is easily overwhelmed by the large and ornate Japanese sleeves, backpieces, and body suits in which they typically float as backdrop elements . Even so, the centuries old Japanese tattoo tradition from which they spring, and where they are still firmly rooted, has essentially formalized their use in that way. But while their ability to stand alone as design elements may have been circumscribed by custom, their powerful symbolism has taken on a life of its own. As Motoori Norinaga, noted Japanese scholar of the 18th century, wrote in a poem, “If I were asked to define the spirit of Japan, I would call it the blossom of the mountain cherry, scattering its scent in the morning sun.” For the Japanese, the beautiful period of its flowering and then the all too soon fading and subsequent scattering of petals on the wind, symbolizes life itself - but not life in some abstract and distant sense. The fragility of the cherry blossom is the fragility of human existence; its brief period of life, like our own; its implacable movement toward death, indifferent to the good things of this world, is the ideal death for a samurai warrior; and finally, its individual and perfect beauty is also ours. Poignant for some but hopeful for others, the symbolism of this staple in tattoo artwork seems almost more than a single flower could bear. However, like powerful tattoo symbols everywhere, it seems to shoulder the burden naturally.
Anyway, on to the rest of the weekend...Sunday morning I woke up at 10. Hailey was still sleeping! Did I mention the fact that I have a WONDERFUL little girl??? I was wide awake, so I got up and made some blueberry muffins with tons of blueberries. Hailey woke up just as they were coming out of the oven. I asked her if she wanted a yummy muffin and she nodded enthusiastically and said "YEA!" She ate two! My sister came over and we went down to my grandma's for dinner with the family. Hailey was great the whole time, letting everybody play with her. She went to sleep at 6:00 on the way home, and after trying unsuccessfully to get her woken up when we got home I finally put her to bed at 8:00. She woke up at 7:30 am yesterday. Yesterday afternoon I got a migraine, but I got over that eventually and the rest of the day was fine. We spent the day with my mom. We all took a 2 hour nap in the afternoon. Nice lazy day. Unfortunately it was hot, in the 90's again, BOO! But this weekend it's supposed to be a high of 80!!! SO looking forward to that.
D and I have been talking some more about the new baby plans. We've both come to the conclusion that we'll just wait and see how things work out over the next few months or so, and when the time seems right we'll go for it. We're not in any hurry. So it may be December like we'd originally planned, much to the dismay of our families...or it may be next summer, who knows. We're really enjoying the whole "planning" phase, since we didn't get to do that with Hailey. Everything is so fun this time around. We've already started talking about names. You have to understand, the whole name thing was a big issue for us when I was pregnant with Hailey. He didn't like any of my names, I didn't like any of his...boy or girl, either one. We just didn't see eye to eye. We finally settled on my favorite girl name for her middle name, and we found a name we both didn't dislike, but I didn't LOVE...one that didn't remind us of anything or anybody else. And we just went with that. It wasn't until Hailey was a good 3 months old or maybe even longer that I really saw her as "Hailey"...it never fit, until then. This time we've got the advantage of having a head start, and we're loving it. It's so fun to throw names around, even though we aren't even pregnant yet. We want to really like the next name. We're going to start going through the name book soon and writing names down. It's funny, we're kind of doing this in reverse. Isn't it usually your first baby who you plan excessively for? Who has a fully filled out baby book, complete record of "firsts," and albums upon albums full of chronologically ordered pictures?? Since Hailey was so unplanned, and we didn't want a baby at the time, we didn't do any of that. Her baby book is half filled out. I don't know any of her firsts, just general ideas of when things happened. We never even ordered any of her newborn pictures. It all breaks my heart now, to think about all that. I know it sounds bad, but it's like Hailey has been our "practice" baby and now that we have all the basic care things worked out we can put more energy into all the fun stuff with this next baby. It's exciting!
2 comments:
I think it would be awesome for you and your sister to get the tattoo! You should talk to your DH and explain it all to him! I am sure that he would understand...you are not getting some ugly tattoo that has no meaning! And yes it was daisies:)
I really agree with Wendy.
it would be really good getting tattoo. as long as you are happy you should do it.
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