White Flowers / White Buds on a Tree Branch

I took this photo of white flowers / white buds on a tree branch a few days ago. It was a warm and sunny day, the sky was a gorgeous blue and there was just enough wind to provide a pleasant breeze. A perfect day to stare up at the trees and the sky, to enjoy the beauty right there and all around me. I walk past this tree almost daily however rarely stop to actually look up at the beauty above. How much beauty and how many happy moments have I missed, walking past without looking up?

White flowers can have different meanings depending on country, culture and context - purity and innocence, perfection, or death and mourning. A quick online search for the symbolism of white flowers tells me they are "Often associated with innocence, humility, and reverence" (Teleflora) as well as purity, honesty and perfection (Flower Shopping). Today all those meanings feel appropriate. As The Netherlands remembers those who died in World War Two, I am drawn to the diary of a young girl who lived about an hour away from where I sit today. She was one of the millions who died, only one person, yet it is her face I see in my mind when I think about the horror and futility of war, hatred and persecution. It is her words I read when I need a reminder to be positive and to believe in the basic goodness of humanity and the possibility of a better world, one without war and destruction.

“In spite of everything I still believe that people are really good at heart. I simply can’t build up my hopes on a foundation consisting of confusion, misery, and death. I see the world gradually being turned into a wilderness, I hear the ever approaching thunder, which will destroy us too, I can feel the sufferings of millions and yet, if I look up into the heavens, I think that it will all come right, that this cruelty too will end, and that peace and tranquillity will return again.”
 ~ Anne Frank

Pure and Innocent | Nimavenl