Moving Forward with my Mother

By Liane Wakabayashi
By Liane Wakabayashi

Shopvida Scarfy By Liane Wakabayashi

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Yesterday I found it quite distressing the shedding of the leaves on this small lemon bush –a tragedy I thought. Today I see heaven’s hand in all of this. Without the leaves I could better see the butterfly engaged in reading.

Yes, reading! I couldn’t believe my eyes either when I saw the photo after snapping away madly to get one decent still of this butterfly in motion.

This was no ordinary butterfly as it turned out. This too I found mind blowing–that this was the offspring of a black and white butterfly I had painted years ago. That painting was and is still one of my favorites, and when ShopVida invited me to print some of my art onto scarves this was the painting I chose. The first person to have that scarf as a present was my mother.

It was one of my last gifts to her just in this season–when the butterflies appear, when the hydrangeas are just starting to get ready to bloom.

I would like to think that my mother wants to tell me that she saw the essay I wrote about her in today’s Forward, the newspaper she loved to read and discuss with me in our frequent phone calls half way round the world.

Happy Mother’s day sweet Mom. Wherever you are now.

http://forward.com/sisterhood/371326/a-desk-in-japan-brings-back-memories-of-an-american-jewish-childhood/?attribution=blog-post-item-2-headline

 

Circa 1991
Circa 1991

It was she.

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Author: admin

I'm a Jerusalem-based artist and writer of a memoir in progress about rediscovering my Jewish roots in Japan.