Forsythia, because its beautiful and a sign of the beginning of spring. It also glows yellow like the sun. Also, there used to be a painting of a vase full of forsythia in my psychiatrist's office. I loved that painting and associated it with being with him. After years of it hanging in his office, it was suddenly gone one day. Apparently, he took it home to hang in his house. Maybe his wife asked him to? As a replacement, he hung a painting of a well-known building that resides in my childhood hometown. I rather dislike that new painting, despite not disliking the actual building in real life, or my childhood hometown. He knows all of this.

I remember the exact moment I noticed the forsythia painting replaced. I had been yapping away joyfully, then turned my head to the left and had a shock. I yelped "Oh my God! What happened to the painting!" When I looked at him, he looked as if he had been waiting for that moment. He then asked me "Do you know where that picture portrays?" I stared a bit in disappointment and eeked out that maybe it was Nova Scotia. He corrected me. I remember saying nothing more, feeling deflated.

When I got home, I directly went and wrote my psychiatrist a note on a card I had purchased weeks before. It was a lovely card with forsythia on it, and a little bumble bee, with the note "You're the best!" In the card, I acknowledged my sadness about the painting change, but thought it nice that the new one was set in my childhood hometown. I mailed the card that day. The next time I saw him, he said nothing. I said nothing about the card, either.

For years, when the forsythia painting was in his office, I would always draw my psychiatrist's attention to when forsythia was first blooming in the spring. I would say, "Dr. R, did you see that the forsythia is blooming?"

In response, he would always say "I know, BirdDancer."

After he replaced the painting, I stopped saying that. That was a good three years ago. Then, weeks back from today, during our first video session because of the pandemic, at the end of our session I said "Dr. R, did you see that the forsythia started blooming?"

I know he heard my question, but he said nothing, yet a smile came to his face, almost as if he was touched that I said it again.

During my most recent video session, my psychiatrist sat in a different spot of his office. Behind him, I could see the painting of that famous building in my childhood hometown. He has a light shining on it, so it kind of glowed. Towards the end of the session, I told him that it glowed. He then asked me if the painting was growing on me. I said "A little bit." but it really isn't. But that's OK.

Q: Is there something (besides a person) that you treasure?