I had the best childhood in the world:  I grew up across from an enormous open field of wildflowers.  They were glorious!  Left to grow as tall as I, they would bend and sway with the wind.  There were Queen Anne’s Lace, Buttercups, Black Eyed Susans, Indian Blankets, Dandelions, Texas Thistles, Sunflowers, and so many more which sadly I cannot name.  I used to run out and pick fresh flowers for the dinner table each night after all Mama’s hard work.  She cooked everything from scratch six days a week and her food was excellent.  Mama knew all the flowers’ names (both scientific and colloquial) and she would tell me of her childhood and the flowers she loved and picked for her mother.  Maris is incredibly lucky that she is growing up with some fields of wildflowers still left, even if those spaces are smaller and more sporadic.  Of course that is provided the city of Dallas doesn’t label them weeds and mow them all down, as they frequently are want to do, in our increasingly sterilized society.  But I seek the wild like a flower lifts its petals to the sun.  Now my little one wants to pick flowers for me for our table, but I have explained that we need to leave them because they are no longer as plentiful.  It is imperative we also leave some open land in order for wildflowers to grow.  It is sustenance for the butterflies and bees, protection for all the other wildlife, and nourishment for our souls.  If you cannot see any flowers, plant them yourself — wherever you may be.  I just cherish this picture.  My husband took it exactly four years ago today; the day before my first Mother’s Day.  Maris was about six months old.  This is right by our house and we were just driving home.  I remarked, as I always do, upon how beautiful the wildflowers were.  Spontaneously, we all got out of the car and he took this photo of us.  It evokes so many memories of my childhood and creates new ones with the precious family of my own I am blessed to have now.  May, mothers, and memories of wildflowers; the cycle continues.  French artist Henri Matisse said, “There are always flowers for those who want to see them.”  Literally and figuratively — I hope you find a field of flowers.