SAND DUNES AND A SWALLOW

My dear Theo,

...

"It is sometimes so bitterly cold in the winter that one says, 'The cold is too awful for me to care whether summer is coming or not; the harm outdoes the good.' But with or without our approval, the severe weather does come to an end eventually and one fine morning the wind changes and there is a thaw. When I compare the state of the weather to our state of mind and our circumstances, subject to change and fluctuation like the weather, then I still have some hope that things may get better."

...

Yours truly,
Vincent

(pages 63 and 64, from THE LETTERS OF VINCENT VAN GOGH, translated by Arnold Pomerans. This is from a letter of August 1879, written to his brother, Theo.)

This morning there were sand dune-shaped clouds in front of the sun as it rose above the cottonwoods. It was only after I downloaded the photos I took of the clouds and sun that I noticed a swallow in the sky. A few minutes ago when I went out on my porch, a swallow flew from the swallow nesting box. I had put the nesting box out last year, but the swallows didn't use it. That made me think of:

Swallow Song.