Friday, September 13, 2013

Asters for Eva

Asters
My mom passed away three years ago at this time.

I think of her when the asters start to come out.

I love to walk around North Pond here in Chicago and notice the asters as September stretches into October.

Asters are exuberantly showy - with lots of different types competing to outdo each other: "Look at me! Look how purple I am!" "No, me, look at me! I'm even more purple!"

I never thought of Mom as being "showy," and yet there's something about those shades of purple that remind me of how she used to dress for church on Sundays, and it makes me smile to associate her with asters.


Eva Scarry


And she could hold her own with any showy flowers!

Here's are some albums we put together with more of pictures of Mom and of her garden.

More wildflowers . . . . 

(Also ... check out Seamus Heaney reading this poem in memory of his mother ("When all the others were away at Mass.)


Related posts

Any day that starts with morning glories on Point Alanna is a good day!

(See Morning Glories on Point Alanna )










Each story in Taipei People is about a person who ended up in Taiwan after the war. More than anything, the story "Glory's by Blossom Bridge" is about the destiny of so many men who came from the mainland to Taiwan: ending up old and alone.

(See Taipei People: Thinking of Home )





Chicago has a tremendous head start in being a place that is inspired by the beauty all around us to do the difficult things that are needed. And Chicago is so beautiful all summer long, there's no reason to leave the city. Think of all the carbon emissions save on car and jet travel!

(See "One Word: Wildflowers" on Zero Carbon Chicago)




What I am wondering -- now that I've discovered the way Wang Wen-hsing holds up a mirror to me as much or more than he documents life in Taiwan -- is whether I am ready to bring more of these things about myself up to the surface.

(See Wang Wen-hsing and the Unspeakable: Changes in the Family )

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