Day 69 – Naked Beauty

February 16, 2015

(This is part of a 365 project during my 70th year where I write and illustrate a blog on each day's gift.)

Predictions for this area are for up to 10 inches of snow overnight. I sit in my car on the Safeway parking lot, which is filled with people carrying plastic bags filled with toilet paper and rushing to their cars as the temperature falls into the low 20’s. Chill, gloom and monochrome surrounds me but beauty abounds even on a bleak day such as this one. When my eye focuses on a single tree, I see a balanced curve of reaching branches morphing into a lacy silhouette. This tree does not need color or adornments; it is striking in its nakedness.

Humans too are beautiful without culture’s accoutrements. Without regarding clothing, makeup, jobs, possessions, colors or awards, there is a simple beauty in our reaching which becomes a lacy network against our own bright backdrop of expectations. Like the tree, our reaching is a paradox of simplicity and intricacy entwined. Robert Browning wrote, “A man’s reach should exceed his grasp.” My tree's beauty exceeds expectations.

This tree overlooks a grocery store parking lot, surrounded by chill, cars and snow flurries. Shoppers with hands full of recent purchases get into their cars to head home while I step out to admire a bare beauty, a metaphorical arbor arching over the end of my day.

My gift today is a bare winter tree.

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> DAY 70 One, Two, Four

You can read my other posts on this project here:

http://bjschupp.blogspot.com/2014/12/365-gifts.html