The Leaf Sign
The Leaf Sign
Kelly Sunsine – www.getitdonewrite.com
How often do you stop and smell the roses? I don’t mean literally sniffing some flowers; I’m getting at the figurative meaning = slowing down to appreciate the beauty of life you are smack dab in the midst of. And do you ever get a little nudge or sign that you’re going too fast, maybe missing what’s most important?...
To me, this represents a stop sign.
It was one of THOSE mornings. Two steps ahead, three steps back. What COULD go wrong, DID go wrong, and tension was building. I kept saying to myself, “PLEASE, just let us get out the door!”
So finally, well after our normal departure time, we made it past our threshold. I had each child by hand, Savannah on my left, Lance on my right, and away we went. Their tiny legs working double-time compared to mine, me looking like a pull horse, with them as my harness, nearly dragging behind - but we had to hurry so they wouldn’t be late to school!
“C’mon you two. We have to hustle!” I announced, marching a little bit quicker. Savannah was doing a better job of keeping up, but that was normal since she was the only one of the three of us who actually enjoyed running.
They wanted to chat with me and slow down to greet the neighbors, but I told them there was no time for that this morning. We had barely gotten half way down our street when Lance dropped my hand. “But Mommy, wait!” Exasperated may not even be a word strong enough to describe how I felt at that point. “Wait” was not part of my plan for getting us from point A to point B. “What now?!” I muttered under my breath. “No, Lance. We can’t stop.” I glanced slightly over my shoulder, letting my right hand trail after me, and shouted for him to hurry.
“But Mommy! LOOK!!!” he pleaded. And it occurred to me that he was not going to follow - so I spun around, thoroughly unhappy that he was going to make us even later. I opened my mouth to start scolding him, when I saw him gingerly peeling something from the ground. “It’s a heart!” he exclaimed, and held up the biggest leaf I’d ever seen – and yes- it was in the perfect shape of a heart. In that moment, I was gob smacked. I could not believe it. I stopped right there, in the center of the road (it was a quiet street), shook my head, let out my breath, and smiled because I got the message from the universe.
In my haste, I had probably stepped on it, but my little guy, so observant and sensitive to the world around him, even while being whisked along by his oblivious, impatient mother, hadn’t missed it. In his 5 year old fingers, he held a leaf so unique and fragile. The veins were noticeable throughout, and it was full of cracks and creases, showing obvious signs of wear, yet somehow was still intact.
As I approached him, he peered up at me, so proud of the treasure he’d discovered. So, I silenced the ticking of that clock in my head, and praised him. “Wow. That IS amazing, Honey. I’m so glad you saw it!”
“Where did it come from, Mommy?” But I couldn’t immediately answer his question. We looked around, and there were no trees with similar leaves anywhere nearby. In fact, in Half Moon Bay, there were mostly evergreen and eucalyptus trees. I’d never seen a tree with leaves like this one. “It must have floated over here from another street,” is all I could offer.
He asked if he could take it to school to share with the others. Once on the playground, I escorted Savannah to her teacher, and Lance carefully ran to Mr. Wilkinson, the director, who was genuinely impressed with Lance’s discovery. He even asked if it would be okay to showcase it in the school’s special museum cabinet so that everyone may be able to see something so spectacular.
My boy eagerly agreed, and as they walked inside, he peered back at me and beamed, so full of pride and honor. I blew him a kiss, and then lingered at the gate, feeling grateful for the gift of a moment in time that I'd almost lost. My chest ached a little as I turned to start my walk home. It felt as though my heart had grown to match the size of the leaf we found. I mean, …the leaf HE found. Then, I heard the school bell ring and realized – curiously, after ALL that, we weren’t even late.
