What do you see in this image?

When I first saw this tree last week, I saw arms wide open, ready for a hug. I saw a mother tree, offering a sheltering embrace for her children. So I photographed it a couple of ways, but nothing came of them. They were flat, uninteresting.

But this week, after writing about arms reaching in my Photo-Heart Connection, I saw something else. I saw arms open wide, in celebration. Sending into the universe, receiving from the universe. And so, that’s what it needed to become. Arms wide open, in joyous celebration.

Hugging, sending, receiving… it can be all of those things. What do you see?

As I worked on the image, a line from a Gary Go song, Open Arms, kept running through my head: “It’s like open arms to me… Ready to… Ready to receive.” This was a favorite song of mine while I was in Italy, and it spoke to me deeply, connecting with where I was at that time in my journey.

In the way of beautiful art, it continues to speak to me, several years later, as I think about having arms uplifted, open. Ready to receive.

What speaks to you in this song, this image? What is it you see?