Weekly Photo Challenge: Future Thoughts from My Mother

The Weekly Photo Challenge is Future.

This is what I learned about the future from my mother…with quotes and my photos from Cartagena, Colombia.

When I was young, I ate breakfast with my mother and we would share our dreams of the night before. Our colorful dreams were usually joyful and telltale of our outlooks on life.

“The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.”
― Eleanor Roosevelt

My mother taught me to take responsibility for my future one baby step at a time and her strategy was optimism and faith.

“Optimism is a strategy for making a better future. Because unless you believe that the future can be better, you are unlikely to step up and take responsibility for making it so.”
― Noam Chomsky
My mother always said that we create our own futures and it doesn’t take a lot of money to create our visions of happiness.

“But you can build a future out of anything. A scrap, a flicker. The desire to go forward, slowly, one foot at a time. You can build an airy city out of ruins.”
― Lauren Oliver, Pandemonium
Ours lives are but whirling fantasies, according to my mother. She loved twirling and whirling. I think that is because we can view the world from a new dizzy perspective.

“Your fantasies define you, so dream carefully. A man with no imagination is a man with no future in today’s world—and no past in tomorrow’s.”
― Jarod Kintz
I am a reflection of my mother in looks, acts, and deeds. She laid the foundation for my future for which I am very grateful. The photo below is from an art museum in Cartagena where a baby grand piano reflected the paintings, like mirror images.

“I see two women, one in a reflection in a window, and the other I see through the window, and it’s like I’m looking at both my past and future at the same time.” ― Jarod Kintz
My mother loved Marilyn Monroe. In fact, she looked like Marilyn when she was young.

“In the future, females will take my quotes out of context in order to justify their bitchy actions.” Marilyn Monroe
My mother taught me to have self-confidence. She said that when we have confidence in ourselves, we can walk into the future with our heads held high.

“You are imperfect, permanently and inevitably flawed. And you are beautiful.”
― Amy Bloom
Parental wisdom is a gift I received and hopefully passed on to my son for his future.