Red Hashi Bridge

Bridges

A bridge is a meeting place... a possibility, a metaphor. - Jeanette Winterson

Pen pals are people who regularly write to each other, particularly via postal mail. They are usually strangers whose relationship is based primarily, or even solely, on their exchange of letters.

On my third year in high school, I had a pen pal, a Japanese girl whose name I can't recall, unfortunately. She was on her last year of Tyugakko (junior high). We were both fourteen years old.

Of course, I was thrilled.

After the first exchange of letters, we were soon also sending small gifts - dried, pressed petals of our respective national flowers, the sampaguita and cherry blossom. After that, we traded fans: a woven abaniko from me for a Japanese paper fan.

Internet pic only

But what I treasured most from among the trinket gifts my friend had sent was a postcard.

It was simple.

Minimalist. 

It was that of a hill garden dominated by a red hashi bridge arched over a shallow stream.

I had imagined being in her world, the colorful crossover connecting the bank of my river to her river across time and space.

I thought, I'd like to be there. Pass over the stream and pluck pink sakura blossoms off the tree.

Some day.