Lesson From The Leaves

 I was outside looking at my favorite flowered bush and the flowers are gone right now but that did not mean that there was not a lesson to be learned. 

The first leaf is so new. It is fragile and needs help and attention from the older leaves like we do as children. Some of us have supportive parents and some of us do not or did not. But we live on in either scenario. We have that child's trust and hope. 

The second leaf has grown a bit. An adult, ready to take our place in society. Hold down a job, maybe get married and have children and we are strong enough to weather the life we have now. We have our ups and downs but we have a partner or a supportive network of people that love us and keep hope alive for us. 

The third leaf is broken. Maybe our marriage fell apart or we lost the job that we thought would support us for the rest of our lives. Maybe we lost a child or a parent because this is the span of life where loss happens. We are getting older. We have different responsibilities. We may have to care for our aging parents and they may be sick. We may be alone in our brokenness, feeling that we will never survive what is happening in our lives. We may feel hopeless at times or have trouble seeing the light in the dark. This is the time that we need to surround ourselves with goodness and light. Rut out the malignancies that may keep us broken. This is the time to choose to help ourselves. 

The forth leaf is our aged self. You can see the holes in our armor. We have gotten old. You can see our lives written upon our faces. Our hair has turned gray. Our bodies are failing us. We have lost most of the people that used to be in our lives. 

If we are really lucky, a child will step in to help us walk this last road. They give us respect and provide us with the things that we need to live and be healthy. They include us in their lives and they don't make us feel that we are a burden. This is really important because WE never want to be a burden to our children. We want to continue to be the Mom or the Dad that raised them. 

We want to be viable and honored for the things that we can do. Not derided for the things we can't. 

This last part of our journey is no picnic but it can be wondrous. We are experiencing something we never have before. We are finding out that we are so much stronger than we ever thought we could be. We are wiser if we have learned the lessons of our youth and middle ages and things that once may have bothered us can be seen as what they are, small stepping stone to growth. 

I don't know what each of you may be facing today. I do know that we don't have to face those things alone. I am here and you are here and together we are strong. 

I can't tell you all how much I love you. There are not any words that can let you all know what your cards, messages and love to me could ever convey. But I promise that I will be here for you in any way that I can be. I  don't have money but I am not poor and I am not helpless.I can listen with my two ears and I can see with my two eyes that our Creator gave me. And my beating heart will love you until the leaf falls off the plant and becomes a thing of beauty like only Nature can provide.  Always, Kimmee