Violette

My mother loved all flowers. But violets were my mother's favorite, and particular Parma violets. Every Valentine's Day my father would bring her a nosegay of these sweet fragrant blooms. At one time, small hand-tied bouquets of these could be found in the flower stalls and shops of cities around the world. I wish today's flower growers and florists would re-introduce them. Till then, this shopping bag I found when helping my mother move many years ago, will remind me of my Mother and her flower love.

“Just dreaming is already important,

I wish you dreams never ending,

And the furious desire to make some,

I wish you to love what to love,

I wish you to forget what to forget,

I wish you birdsongs when you wake up,

I wish you laughs of children,

I wish you silences,

I wish you to resist the stagnation,

To indifference, to the negative virtues of our time.

I especially wish you to be you.”

Jacques Brel

This beautiful keepsake and sentiment is particularly fitting for Martin Luther King Day, and for dreamers everywhere.  I found this years ago in a print shop in the Belgian book town of Redu.  It has traveled everywhere with me. 

Still dreaming,

Marjorie,