THIS MOMENT NOW

Every time I experience a moment of perfection, inevitably a sudden realisation that this moment will soon be gone sends a chill through me.

Recently in Italy with my family I had one of those perfect days in Florence with my Mum.  We had spent the day alone together, with Botecelli, Da Vinci and hundreds of figures ‘escaping their marble’.  We stopped midway through the Uffizi Gallery for a coffee on the rooftop terrace overlooking the city and I felt in my heart how precious and then fleeting our time together was.  Mum looked at me in her years of wisdom and said, Darling don’t be silly...

This moment is yours to have forever.

And I still have it now, the memory is with me always.

But I guess it is just the swift passing over of moments into memories that gives life a certain melancholy over time.

On a completely separate note, it was also that day that I saw this painting and was incredibly moved.

Botecelli’s painting of the virtue Fortitude, embodied by the grace and strength of a woman.