Oubaitori.

 OUBAITORI — BLOOM IN YOUR OWN TIME 

There is a beautiful Japanese word: Oubaitori (桜梅桃李).

It is made from the names of four blossoms:

Sakura — cherry

Ume — plum

Momo — peach

Ri — Japanese plum

Each has its own colour, fragrance, shape and season of flowering. None tries to become another.

That is the wisdom of Oubaitori:

Everyone has a different journey.

Everyone grows at a different pace.

There is no need to compare.

A child may discover a talent early; another may find it much later. One person may achieve success at twenty-five, another at sixty. Some flowers bloom in spring, others wait for another season.

The flower does not look at its neighbour and say, “Why am I not blooming like you?”

It simply becomes what it was meant to become.

Perhaps that is a lesson worth remembering in a world that constantly tells us to compare ourselves with others.

Do not measure your life by someone else’s season.

Bloom when your time comes.