Your Life The Leaf

You brush by it every day on your way to the car or the store. It sits mutely, unnoticed and unobstrusive. Perhaps sometimes you give it a glance, and if it’s done something notable, like change color or sprout a new leaf, you give it a closer look. But even these feats are commonplace, so more often than not you don’t notice them either. Then one day the winter winds blow all the leaves away, and the branches are naked. You’re not quite sure what you’re missing, but you know you’re longing for something.

But the next time you pass by this commonplace bush or tree, I want you to stop and drop everything you’re doing. I want you to single out one leaf. It need not be the prettiest or the biggest. But it does have to be one special one. Look at it closely. Notice its sheen when the sun hits it. On the surface of the green, you can see red and yellow – the original Technicolor. There’s one vein running in the middle, branching off into ever-shrinking spider-web veins, the plant’s own vascular system. The underside is an entire other world. Little bugs work and play on it.

You can easily spend 20 minutes absorbed in the miracle that is a leaf. But most days you and I and most people brush past them without a second thought on our way to something “more important.”

The moments of your life are probably passed in much the same way. You may complain you have no time, or that your life is boring or tedious. But I ask you, when was the last time you stopped to truly look in the face of your child, or someone you love deeply? Not just to look in their general direction when you speak to them (if that) but to really look at her face as if it was the first time? The turn of her lips. The shine of her hair. This is an exercise that can easily take an hour. To truly, mindfully, look at a person whose presence fills you with love can give you unimaginable joy.

When was the last moment you stopped to become completely mindful of all the information your perfect senses were providing to you? The smell of your office, and closer to you, the fabric softener on your clothes. The hum of your computer, blessed thing that connects you to all the world at will. The light on your desk. The precious things you keep around you.

When was the last time you stopped to become aware of your place in the larger universe? Instead of realizing that in comparison to your supervisor, you don’t have quite as much square footage, or that your neighbor has a better car, why not realize that you are more fortunate than any king that ever lived before the modern age in your access to medical care, to means of travel, life expectancy, food choices and availability of entertainment? Why not cherish every beautiful thing you possess?

You can brush past each moment, not noticing the abundance of gifts contained in each one, unique and readily available to you. You can long for happiness and fulfillment, and the financial abundance that will cure all your ills. You can be frustrated and wonder when your life will be right. Or you can decide that you have more right now than you could ever have enough time for which to be thankful. You can slow down the passage of time by hugging this very little minute tight, and packing it with noticed details, with mindfulness, with gratitude, and above all, love.

Don’t walk past a leaf without a conscious thought. It’s your very life you’re ignoring, one little leaf at a time.