Day 363 Ornamental Grass

December 7, 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.)

On my walk in Downs Park today, I stopped to admire ornamental grass growing in clumps near the main office. These clusters are especially beautiful when I study their texture accentuated with back or side light from the sun. Each long stalk contains a clump of “fingers” curving downward and holding hundreds of seeds. I cannot help but reach out to feel the feathery fingers that seem to hold the sun’s silky rays along with millions of seed possibilities for future generations. 

On windy days, I observe how the tall stalks bend with the wind. This is not a sign of weakness. In fact, the park ranger tells me ornamental grasses are hardy and she offers seedlings if I’d like some for my yard. These stalks bend in the wind but return to stand tall on a still day. Perhaps this is really a sign of strength—its ability to be flexible. Is this another life lesson from Mother Nature?

Nature paints texture on life’s canvas, giving it depth, meaning and narrative. The texture in my hands tells a story of hands that have dipped emerging prints in developer while I watched darkroom magic in amazement. Multiplying lines on my face were etched with millions of smiles throughout 70 years. The roughness in my voice grew from years of teaching young minds to grow. And the texture in my mind makes the fertile ground where creative thoughts bloom. 

My gift today is texture.

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Day 364: Rice Krispy Treats


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

              

Day 334 Blowing Leaves

November 8, 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.)

This morning I awoke to a perfect day for walking in my local park. I hopped in my car to drive two miles, showed my lifetime senior pass at the entrance, set my Fitbit for tracking exercise and got out of my car ready to walk. I set out on the perimeter path, about 3 ½ miles. Soon my thoughts began flowing freely. From the Chesapeake Bay side to the Bodkin Creek side, I felt relaxed. 

Oddly, in the middle of surrounding nature sounds, I was astonished to meet a park employee coming toward me, carrying either a battery or gas pack on his back and sweeping back and forth, to create and scatter dust devil swirls to one side or the other. I gestured and he turned off the jarring noise so we could talk.

“Why are you doing this?”

“To clean the leaves off the path. I’ve done this four times already this week and the leaves keep falling.” (Duh!)

“Yes, I can see that but why is this necessary?”

He was at a loss at first and then pointed to a slight bump on the path, indicating that if it were covered with leaves, people might trip. 

I told him that I found this to be incredible and to please convey to his boss that one park member looked forward to taking leaf photos and hearing the leaves crinkle and crunch on her walk.

He seemed to try to comfort me by saying, “I’m sure you’ll find some leaves have already fallen where I’ve just cleared.” 

He was right. I found one in a small puddle and took a photo with my cell phone. At the end, I had completed 4.9 miles and crunched a few newly fallen leaves. 

My gift today is Mother Nature’s victory.

 Left path had just been cleared by a leaf blower. I turned around and saw the one on the right which had not yet met the noisy machine. Which path would you prefer to walk on in natural surroundings?

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> Day 335 What is a Life Worth?

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

Day 324 Connections

October 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.)

A Chinese woman, student in an art class at Anne Arundel Community College, works on an oil painting of autumn in Downs Park.

Just a few miles away, Downs Park is a treasure in my area. Actually, I think that all parks are treasures everywhere. There is something about watching a squirrel, listening to a sparrow, walking under red leaves, or admiring wild mushrooms that bring balance into one’s life. All people should have access to nature within a short distance from where they live.

When one tugs at a single thing in nature, he finds it attached to the rest of the world.” ~ John Muir

David and I walked a short distance today in Downs near closing time. Everyone we met greeted us and in some cases, we stopped and had conversations. People taking an art class at Anne Arundel Community College had easels set up and were creating their own painted scenes in the park. Other people were walking with their dogs, families or sweethearts. We walked out on the pier and spoke with people who were fishing and saw someone catch a catfish. Some of the fishermen spoke Spanish. One African American man we spoke to, with an amputated leg and minus a number of teeth, told us he had served in Vietnam and told us about the challenges of getting proper medical care as a veteran. Without exception, everyone of all ages and backgrounds connected with one another. 

Parks connect people with nature, but they also connect us with one another and help us maintain sanity in a stressful and imbalanced world. 

One touch of nature makes the whole world kin.” ~ John Muir

My gift today is a walk in the park.

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> Day 325: Dust Removed

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

Day 303 Beginning the Day

October 8, 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.)

During the year in Maryland, there are a limited number of days that I can begin my day sitting on my back porch drinking in nature and green tea. Spring and fall, when the temperature is comfortable and it is not raining, I like to greet the day this way.

When I was teaching, I woke up at 5:30, arrived at school by 6:30 and began to prepare for the hectic and sometimes stressful day. Now, I have the luxury of a slower and more connected start. I read the paper or the next chapter of a novel while drinking one of my favorite teas. Often, I just sit, look and listen.

This morning, there were no hummingbirds. They have begun to migrate and will return sometime next April. I watched a chickadee and titmouse dare to approach the nearby feeders, in spite of my presence. Since our huge oak tree that our porch was built around had to be taken down, squirrels are no longer constant visitors, but today I heard a scratching as a squirrel scooted high on a loblolly and stopped on a branch to eat an acorn. A plane from nearby BWI Thurgood Marshall Airport buzzed overhead, reminding me how much I love travel adventures.

What's the rush? If you've given yourself permission to chase your dreams, then why is it so hard to give yourself permission to just be?” ~ Nikki Rowe

My gift today is permission to just be.

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http://www.stoopstorytelling.com/         

> Day 304: Touching Lives

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

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

Day 203 Clitellum

June 30, 2015

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

It’s not that I love earthworms so much but rather the sensory awakening that occurs when they crawl onto the sidewalk after a rain. I like the darkened drama of a summer storm—gray sky, cracking thunder, rhythmic rain, earthy scent of freshly moistened soil.  The gyrations of the annelid’s tiny glistening body remind me of the slithering of seasons through a lifetime and the comfort of seasonal repetition.

I wonder why this creature has left its natural surroundings for hard concrete. Many people believe it is to avoid drowning in the rain but it was not in danger of drowning. The rain actually makes travel easier for earthworms because they can move without drying out—a matter of life and death for them. They breathe through their skin, which must remain wet for oxygen to pass through it. 

My high school biology class dissected a worm. At that time, I thought it was the most uninteresting thing we could have dissected. I missed most parts we were supposed to identify, with the exception of the girdle, which is the organ near the middle of the body. I never learned in high school science class that this is called a clitellum, which swells and secretes nutritive liquid that makes reproduction possible. Was this too delicate for an all-girls high school class in the 60’s? Our teacher missed an opportunity to spice things up with a little sex and make us wonder if these two words have anything in common—clitellum and clitoris.

My gift today is a seasonal slither.

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> Day 204: Among the Weeds

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

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