Like a lot of people, I love color. Red’s my favorite.
Color affects mood. For example, red energizes, blue and green soothe.
Colorful garbage can, Durban
This garbage can surprised me. Wonder if those colors encourage people to be more diligent in putting waste in it?
Colorful fruits
One of the things I love about summer is the variety of colorful fruits available. These looked so beautiful, I had to take a photo.
Colorful flowers
I took these at the New York Botanical Gardens. As you might expect, the Botanical Gardens is full of beautiful flowers. These stood out for their color and vibrancy.
Colorful ricksha
From the moment I saw these rickshas on a website, I knew I had to see one up close. It didn’t fail to impress.
I’m not a mother and ever since I lost my own mother ten years ago, Mother’s Day has been emotionally complicated for
Mama, a few years before she had me
me.
Funny thing is, I was never big on Mother’s Day. It was too commercial, too contrived.
And maybe because I lived far away from my mother, I never waited for that one day to let her know how much she meant to me. I made sure that I did something special for Mama each time we saw each other, and told her how important she was to me every time we talked.
You see, my mother was my best friend, my confidante, my role model and teacher. I wanted to be just like her – to be as creative, as intelligent, as caring and as supportive as she was.
Mama wrote poetry, created music and baked elaborate cakes from scratch. She made our clothes so expertly, so neatly they could have been worn inside out – I rarely wore store bought clothes.
Watching her, I learned how to sew but she also taught me how to crochet, embroider and play the flute.
I got my love of crossword puzzles and mysteries from her.
And though she tried to teach me math, I was never as good as she was. As the unofficial bookkeeper for my grandfather’s business, I watched her do the payroll every Friday with just receipts, a notebook and a pencil.
Because of everything I learned from Mama, I wanted to be a mother just so I could pass her gifts on to my daughter — yes, I knew I’d have a daughter.
Unfortunately, that didn’t happen.
So on Mother’s Day, especially, I feel her loss acutely and I think about what might have been.
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