When I discovered that April 14th was National Reach As High As You Can Day I immediately thought I should write a post about reaching personal goals and striving to be the best version of yourself. Never stop reaching for those things others have told you were unattainable. I thought it would be a great time to talk about personal milestones and the people in our lives that have been there to help us.
But then I changed my mind and decided to go in a more literal direction.
So in honor of National Reach-As-High-As-You-Can-Day I would like to recognize a couple of important tools in my life.
Before I introduce those tools, let me give you a little perspective. I am not super tall. I’m not even moderately tall. I am average height… for a 13 to 14 year old girl. And for some additional perspective, my husband (who is the shortest of 4 male siblings) is exactly one foot taller than I am.
“Reach as high as you can” are words I say to myself almost daily. Luckily, I have accepted my limits and have learned how to overcome some obstacles with the help of a few clever tools.
One might think that a step-stool would be a favorite choice of mine… but one would be mistaken. If I am cleaning out a high shelf or getting a heavy object down then I do grab a stool or ladder but if I just need the small, rarely used box of breadcrumbs from the top shelf I’m not going to dig out the stepladder or even drag a chair across the kitchen. I just grab my favorite kitchen tongs. They are a seriously underrated utensil. Conveniently located on my kitchen counter, lightweight, quality metal that will not bend under moderate weight, grippy rubber ends… they should be standard equipment for any less-than-tall cook in the kitchen.
My other favorite “tool” that often helps when reaching as high as I can is not quite enough is my youngest son. At 16 years old, he has not yet reached his 6 foot goal but he is significantly taller than I am and he has goofy long arms (I call him my baby giraffe… he is all limbs that don’t always work together in a graceful way). But even before he blew past me on our family height chart he helped me out. As a young child he did not weigh much… and he always seemed to be under foot… and he liked to try to help… So rather than going to find a chair or stool to stand on it was just easier and quicker to lift him up above my head and ask him to grab whatever I needed. I think the first time my husband walked in on this he sternly told me that was NOT appropriate use of a child. Then I believe he fell down laughing.
So take a moment today on Reach-As-High-As-You-Can-Day and give thanks for what you can reach but also for the help you receive in reaching those last few inches!
Learning to Aim 