ALMOND BLOSSOMS

Thursday's trolley took us to a tiny riverside town where we came across this shrine built into the side of a rock bluff.  

This grotto was built in the 1930s during the Great Depression.  The town residents used local rocks and a 700-pound statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary ordered from Terra Cotto, Germany.  

Our church has a grotto, and I went there many times by myself, lit a vigil light, and silently asked the Blessed Mother to give me strength.  It was my sacred space.  Spirituality, in my opinion, is inborn, and is a way for us to reach out to a greater Force.  Spirituality is like the life jacket is to someone who is drowning in deep and dangerous waters.  We are so richly created with this built-in mechanism and sometimes forget to rely on it.   

Van Gogh's painting Almond Blossoms (below) was inspired by Japanese woodcut prints.  He chose to paint the branches from below and very close up.  It's as if one is lying on one's back on the grass, looking up at the branches above, until you no longer see the entire tree.  The composition is simple, yet gives a sense of serenity.  The branches reach upward toward the heavens.  Does this indicate his fascination with the spiritual and divine?

Almond Blossoms - 1890

Almond trees flower early in spring, marking the start of new life.  He created this painting for his newborn nephew and namesake Vincent Willem.  The painting became a treasured possession of his brother Theo and wife Jo.  It hung prominently above the piano in their living room.  Following the death of Vincent and Theo, all of Vincent's paintings passed into Jo's hands.  She sold some, but Almond Blossoms was so precious to her and her son that it was never to be sold.  That's why to this day it is on display at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, which was founded by his nephew Vincent Willem.🖌

Another dismal day here.  Low 60s predicted by mid-afternoon.  This is February, and this is very strange weather.  I've read where tulips are starting to pop out of the ground.  That's the down side of this unseasonably warm weather.