Day 263 Not Generic

August 29, 2015

(If we live with an open and grateful attitude, every day will bring a gift. This is one of 365 gifts during the year I turned 70.)

 

Outside the Papermoon Diner in Baltimore

How do you show foreign visitors quirky Baltimore? It’s not difficult for David and me because quirky is a magnet that pulls us toward it.

Today we showed our Belarus visitors, Regina and Kate, the Bromo Tower and its inside-the-clock view. Then we had lunch at the Papermoon Diner, walked around Hampden, stopped in at Gallery 788, and saw Loring Cornish’s glass houses and then his gallery in Fells Point. On a previous night we showed them the outside of AVAM, the American Visionary Art Museum. Of course there is much more of quirky Baltimore than we have time to show them...such as Graffiti Alley, many murals in the city, and John Wilkes Booth’s grave site in Green Mount Cemetery which is adorned with many Lincoln pennies.

David and I enjoy introducing visitors to parts of Baltimore that are not always part of a standard tour because, to us, it is the real Baltimore…quirky people, places and things. All visitors see the tourist harbor scene, which we love too, but we like to unfold other layers that define the real city. This includes boarded houses and beggars at traffic lights who walk among the cars waiting for the light to change—even a few panhandlers who hold blank pieces of cardboard without a message, a new generic approach to asking for handouts. People who get our tour will go home scratching their heads but understanding that Baltimore is anything but generic.

My gift today is sharing quirky.

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 > Day 264 Mallets

You can find links to my other posts on this project here:
http://bjschupp.blogspot.com/2014/12/365-gifts.html

Day 262 Who?

August 28, 2015

(If we live with an open and grateful attitude, every day will bring a gift. This is one of 365 gifts during the year I turned 70.)

A horned owl, somewhere at the top of these trees, asked me a question.

I have to accept that I cannot see everything. At Downs Park today, I heard a frog singing in the grass, probably three feet from me. When I moved a few inches closer, the sound stopped temporarily and then started again. Afraid I might step on it, I bent down and rustled the grass, thinking that I would see the frog leap to another spot. No luck. It kept taunting me but eventually I had to give up.

Then, high in the trees—somewhere—I heard a horned owl. I could have sworn that it was asking me a question. “Whoareya who who who? Whoareya who who who?”

Why is the owl asking this? Maybe to check how I define myself today? One answer is that I’m not the person I was yesterday and I’m not the person I’ll be tomorrow. Or I could say: I am flowing with time, evolving, living each day.

Several years ago, I did a photo and words project that was exhibited in five galleries. Nearly 100 people representing 15 countries defined themselves in one sentence beginning with “I am…”

My definition then: I am a child of the universe who lives a rich life of creativity, connections and possibilities.

I don’t think these two statements are contradictory and they both certainly would apply to me still today. What I notice in my new self-definition is that I’ve become more aware of the passage of time and the importance of being in the present.

My gift today is a question from an owl.

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> Day 263 Not Generic

You can find links to my other posts on this project here:

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

Day 261 Harmony

August 27, 2015

(If we live with an open and grateful attitude, every day will bring a gift. This is one of 365 gifts during the year I turned 70.)

When we focus on daily news, we see a world gone bad with wars, murders, bullying, unrest, bickering and general nastiness of the human race. But the view is much different if we spend time under the wings of creativity to conceive new connections and lift us above the fray.

Tonight I had the opportunity to photograph and watch a Baltimore group of musicians working on a project that will communicate a positive message. Just like Michael Owen created 20 love walls for us to see all around Baltimore, the Baltimore Song of Unity project will sound out love. Inspired by the conflict in Baltimore earlier this year and wanting to do something positive, these artists are working on a We Are the World type of song to unite hearts. 

As I watched them work together, I noticed the dynamics of a diverse group of people working to build something together. Sahffi Lynne, originator of this project, acted as facilitator as the ideas for both lyrics and tune were tossed out enthusiastically. Everyone was respected and heard. As each person spoke or sang a phrase, I could almost see these ideas moving like a tangible golden thread, weaving a unity fabric—over and under and through. Diverse musicians were creating beauty together. 

Some people have abandoned Baltimore, physically and emotionally. The city’s problems are multifaceted, run deep and will take many years to address. But rather than despair and retreat, artists create. Baltimore’s rebirth may begin with its fantastic art community. I believe that the potential of art is to turn ugliness into beauty, despair into hope, apathy into empathy, hate into love, conflict into harmony. 

My gift today is watching the birth of an idea.

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> Day 262: Who?

You can find links to my other posts on this project here:

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

Day 260 Rooted

August 26, 2015

(If we live with an open and grateful attitude, every day will bring a gift. This is one of 365 gifts during the year I turned 70.)

A few years ago, when my father was strong enough to go to a nursery with me, we picked out a crape myrtle tree for me to plant at my house. My father gave a gift of his favorite tree to each of his three daughters so we might remember him after he died.

A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in." ~  Greek Proverb

I did not inherit his green thumb but my sister did and as he gradually grew weaker near the end of his life, she made sure that he always had flowers in his apartment. However, I did inherit his love for flowers and was looking forward to hot pink blooms from this tree. I planted the young crape myrtle right by my front door and office window. The next summer, mine did not bloom and I worried that it would never have flowers. The next year arrived and there were still no blooms. But my father was still with us and I didn’t need the tree to spark memories.

One generation plants the trees; another gets the shade. Keep a green tree in your heart, and perhaps a singing bird will come." ~ Chinese proverb

This year, the tree is now tall enough to reach my office window on the second floor where I can see the vibrant pink flowers. I’m hoping that maybe one year a bird will build a nest in it. My father passed away the first week of last December but I can now look out my window and remember how much he loved flowers and his family. This gift keeps giving every year.  

He who plants a tree loves others besides himself." ~ English proverb

 My gift today is a blooming crape myrtle tree.

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You can find links to my other posts on this project here:

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

Day 259 Spirit of Flight

August 25, 2015

(If we live with an open and grateful attitude, every day will bring a gift. This is one of 365 gifts during the year I turned 70.)

Planes fly close overhead at Friendship Park as they approach the landing strip at Baltimore Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport in Glen Burnie, Maryland.

The sound of overhead planes has always held a special excitement for me. When I was a teenager, Baltimore Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport was then called Friendship Airport. I was six years old when it was built in 1950 and it was not unusual for families like mine in Baltimore City to take field trips to the outdoor observation deck at Friendship. I remember walking to the end of the observation deck and looking down on planes—so huge and close—being loaded with luggage. Each plane held a promise of adventure, excitement of the unknown. I felt powerful engines shake the ground beneath my feet and I marveled at the busy blinking lights. 

My family counted pennies but I used to imagine what it would be like to travel on one of these huge jets. I had pen pals in England, France and Japan and dreamed about meeting them one day. Now many years later, more than I ever dreamed has come true. I’ve been able to travel to numerous European countries, New Zealand, Australia and Japan (three times). And the revving plane engines still excite me.

As our world has become more complicated and our country’s fears have grown, we no longer have access to open observation decks where we were so close that we could yell to the baggage handlers below. After 911 when flights began to resume at BWI, David and I, in sober reflection, drove to Friendship Park one night to watch planes approach the landing strip. We wandered out on the “do not trespass” section so we could stand directly under approaching planes and feel that we could almost reach out and touch them. Our bodies felt the air vibrate and our spirits felt defiance, victory and hope as planes zoomed so close to us that we could almost touch them.

Tonight we took our new Belarusian friends to Friendship Park to share the awe and excitement of watching the planes approach the landing strip right above our heads. 

I still get goose bumps every time we go there.

My gift today is goose bumps.

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> Day 260: Rooted

You can find links to my other posts on this project here:

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