A friend brought me some beautiful flowers from New York City, and Maria put them on top of the toilet in our newly-repainted bathroom, which is a warm splash of color and brightness. It is a warm winter, but still winter, and today is cold and rainy and colorless, and I always feel that acutely, I am a warrior for color and light.

I was moving this flowers all over the house to try to figure out how to photograph them, and it suddenly occurred to me that I didn’t need to move them, they ought to be photographed right where they live, a burst of warmth and color and light, this photograph reached down to my heart.

It is a symbol for life, I think, at least to me, I moved nearly a score of times in my life, always seeking something, yearning for something. I realized one day I didn’t need to move all the time, I needed to stand my ground and live my life right where it was. And since then, I have never thought of moving and the painful yearning has left me.

I th ink the same is true for this especially beautiful flowers, they have brought color and light to me when I need it, and they don’t need to move around to be beautiful either. The toilet seat will do fine.