One year late but it is here – of course I mean the Tokyo Olympics!! Despite the pandemic as well as personal hardships for many people taking part the event has brought great atmosphere around the world. We are now in the second week of these amazing international sports and we are discovering what kind of discipline and training it takes to be at the top of our chosen fields. This is true not only for the frontline athletes but also for every person in the team. Unity appears to be one of the key factors behind the visible success.
I am moved by all the thousands of people who worked so hard to make this very special event happen and to continue every day. Watching the opening ceremony on my TV in west London, I couldn’t stop thinking about behind the scene efforts and perhaps some personal dramas. It must have been a tough challenge to collect together opinion and aspirations and materialise them so that millions of people watching can appreciate the underlying theme displayed during the opening ceremony.
Similar principles apply in bringing together an Ikebana composition. Ikebana, the Japanese art of flower arrangement, is where we choose various materials showing best of their elements at the time and placing them together towards the desired theme of the composition. Being selected and placed in harmony is very much about unity. Some flowers and greeneries grow in harsh environment yet others grow in supported environment but when they are placed by a skilled Ikebana practitioner in a composition, they are united.
To celebrate ‘unity’ in Ikebana I have created the composition below.
