Original photograph.

Description: Recently I had lived through a dark winter (physically and mentally). I was living near our nation’s capital when spring was arriving, so I took a walk across the Potomac to the Mall with my camera. I happened to walk into the Cherry Blossom Festival on the very day of peak bloom, at sunset. Serendipitously, I captured this image of a young girl innocently playing with the blossoms by the river. The image reminded me of the eternal power of renewal.