Day 350 Naked Stretching

November 24, 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.)

I have only to look outside my back door to see bare tree branches stretching outward with a few tenacious leaves still clinging. What I notice is that even in their nakedness as winter approaches, the branches are beautiful as they insist on reaching upward. Maybe nature has been my life-long inspiration. I have always reached, knowing that the reaching is so important, even if the goal is never fulfilled. Life is always about the journey right now and the stretching of one’s spirit with possibilities in mind. 

Far away there in the sunshine are my highest aspirations. I may not reach them, but I can look up and see their beauty, believe in them, and try to follow where they lead.” ~ Louisa May Alcott

When I was teaching eighth graders, once I pulled a disruptive girl out in the hall so I could speak privately with her. Thinking I could re-direct her behavior toward a goal, I asked her, “How do you see yourself when you are 25?” I remember feeling sad at the empty look on her face as she shrugged her shoulders apathetically. Here was a young child who did not reach, did not understand how that action connects us with life.  Apathy begins a dying process, even at age 13. 

For a month after my first husband and I split up, I spent time looking inward and then reaching to a new place creatively. I took photos, wrote an article and submitted it to a major national photo magazine. It was accepted. Today I continue to reach.

My gift today is reaching.

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Day 351: Parkway

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