On my walk this morning, I noticed a blooming plant at the top of a chain-link fence. I wondered what was holding it up, and since it was blooming, something was allowing it to not just hang on, but flourish. (There is also a tree behind the plant, but they are not connected; you’ll see it better in the second photo).
Closer inspection showed that the plant had crawled to the top of the fence on a slender green stem, and was drawing nourishment through about six and a half feet of stem. There were some other stems, too. Either from a prior year or from a prior attempt.
When I notice something intriguing I always think how it applies to everyday life. I think about people who thrive in unlikely places by building connections that reach what nourishes them, however far away or tenuous. Or how important connections are, that we can’t thrive without them, and they are worth re-building if they fail.
And I walked on, encouraged to keep going in an unlikely place, connected to the things that nourish me.
–-Quinn McDonald is in Sedona, surrounded by red rocks and art.
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