Mother's Day Flowers and the Hallmark Ambush

Ahhh, Mother's Day! It's a wonderful day for remembering our own mothers, and their mothers as well. And then, if we're particularly lucky in life, we've gotten to be mothers ourselves, and indulged in that uniquely self-indulgent process of mothering others. Because in the most paradoxical of ways, it's us that are enriched by the process of mothering others.



I know that on Monday, I'll hear many people who are particularly unhappy, feeling slighted by their loved ones, not remembered or indulged "enough." I wish they could free themselves up from this being "wronged" and "slighted," to not be blighted by the mother's day Hallmark marketing ambush, and just rejoice and bask in the process of having been mothered/getting to mother others. And let it be that, not anything more. Not tainted by manufactured expectations.



But I do love the flowers, and these days can spend hours on a bouquet, moving it this way and that, adding my external flash to my camera, bouncing the light from the ceiling, adjusting the ISO to get the right amount of light in the shadows and backlighting, manually adjusting the focus, spraying a bit of water, raising and lowering the tripod. . . .



. . . but my images never manage to capture the fragrance!

Happy mother's day, all you who have had mothers, are mothers or fathers, or hope to be some day!