Roses are red, Violets are blue,
Except roses aren’t only red, they’re white and pink and all other hues!

Making up bad rhymes is only one of my many talents- this is known.
What’s also recently become known is I have slowly become my mother.
Let me explain…

My mom is a flower lover in every sense of the term. She’s been #obsessed with flowers long before hashtags were a thing and my memory is a long and meandering tribute to this, because literally every other fond memory I have of/with her involves some level of her giddy excitement at flowers. Big or small, singular or plural, familiar or not, it did not matter- stopping to smell the roses is a way of life with her. Not shy of cameras either, our travel albums are stocked with pictures of Mom with flowers! To this day, my sister and I lapse into fits of giggles when we recall our trip to the Netherlands, when our dear mother diligently posed with what we’re sure is every single tulip blooming at the Keukenhof gardens! We pull her leg that flowers never get old for her and she’ll gasp and go “Woooow!” as many times as she sees them, but it’s taken my first NorCal Spring to be told, you guys, that I do the EXACT SAME THING.

Here I was the other day, pleased as punch in my red linen pants at having found yet another neighbor’s garden open to photo-attack and quite loudly ensuring that passersby were made aware of my pleasure, when Kushal inserts a casual “You’ve become your mom” into his usual reactionary sequence of eye-rolls and dismissive chuckles. It took all of one second to agree with that statement fully and then I was laughing along heartily, because I was already picturing her amusement at reading that her legacy will now include having provided her blogger daughter with most of her shoot locations so she can create images that inspire confidence, positivity and self-love in other women all around the world. #thanksmom