Spring Song

So I went down to The Farmer's Daughter, a shop which carries some of my wares, to drop off a few dozen votives.  I walked up to the counter and greeted the owner, a mentor and friend, and had to push aside some of her work in order to put my candles on the counter.  The work I casually pushed aside was a framed picture which I noticed briefly as I was managing the candles.  Once the candles were on the counter, I commented on what a cute picture it was.

Lynn told me it came from the home of a friend of hers who had recently moved and no longer had an appropriate place to hang the picture.  "She said it just doesn't go with anything." 

As always when I go to the store we chit-chatted about the latest happenings, upcoming vacations, the health and well-being of our families, and of course, business.  Throughout it all I couldn't keep my eyes off that picture.  I asked her how much she was going to ask for it.  She said her price and we went on talking, all the while my eyes glancing down on the counter to the picture. 

I commented again how charming it was, and she gave me a little bit of history on it ~ the name of the artist and approximate date it was painted.  The one we were  looking at was of course a print, but nevertheless I continued look at it with growing affection.

By the time we finished up our little conversation I said to Lynn, "oh, just wrap it up for me.  I can't stop looking at it and I'm sure I can find a nice place for it at my house."  She rang up the sale and I was on my way.

Later that day my mom called me and I excitedly told her "I bought some art today!"  I went on to describe the picture as a small girl sitting on a garden bench looking at a little bluebird.  Mom gasped and asked, "is it an old-fashioned picture?"  Why, yes it is.  "I bet that's the same picture that I loved in my grandma's house!"  The picture she remembered was one of her favorites and she can still visualize where it hung in the dining room at her grandma's house.  She was eager to see the picture to find out for sure if it was indeed the same one.

After seeing the art I bought she confirmed it was indeed the same picture that hung in her grandmother's house over seventy years ago.  OK, not the exact one, but one of many prints of an adorable little girl enthralled by the song of a bluebird in springtime, originally painted by Simon Glucklich.  I still can't take my eyes from the picture as it is propped against the hearth of the fireplace awaiting a home on the wall.  And I can't help but wonder if my attraction to it had something to do with the connection my mom has with it.  I might be foolish to be crediting mysticism and synchronicity to the purchase, but that it hung in my great grandmother's house and endeared itself to my mom when she was a little girl adds that much more to its appeal. 

I just love it.