Living Outside the Box

I had to smile today - in spite of how low I feel. In my yard the spring flowers are shooting up rapidly with the rain we've had the last few days, and the warm sun today. I came across this little brave heart - a daffodil growing, all by herself, on the other side of the garden border.
My initial response was curiosity - how did the little bulb get over there? How is it surviving there in the hard packed, unfriendly, seemingly impossible environment?
And then, I found myself relating to this little flower-to-be. In many ways, over my whole life, and especially now, I have lived, like she, on the other side of the garden border. I have lived 'outside the box'.
Its not easy. Its often times not friendly. It can be lonely when no one else is outside the box and everyone in the box is chiding or trying to entice me to get back in the box. There are many seemingly impossible situations to face because conditions outside the box are less cultivated than in the box.
But, there are things to be experienced outside the box that can't be experienced from the inside of the box. There are broader places for the mind and spirit to be exercised and to grow. Many inventions, creations, discoveries were made by people who either refused to live in the box or who by their very natures did not fit in the box at all.
I don't know exactly where I fit in the mix of those who have lived outside the box, but I definitely relate to this little daffodil. I know I have been and am now - outside the box. And, just as the little daffodil is dependent on her Creator to take care of her for her very existence, so too, must I.