A Saturday Afternoon...

Last weekend, Beau and I looked at our backyard covered in leaves and grumbled at the sight of it.  Since I'm not of much help when it comes to raking this year, I could tell he was torn as to whether to mow and bag them up during Cruz's nap, or take the long road and rake up a big pile for Cruz to play in.  Cruz would know no difference and I was surprisingly willing to forgo this one tradition as I had other things on my to-do list for the day.  I was drowning in paint samples, drowning in laundry, and quite frankly didn't feel like putting the effort in to bundle up and take the time to jump in a pile of leaves.  

It was somewhere in between Benjamin Moore's, Gray Owl and Stonington Gray that I heard the two of them laughing outside.  I peaked through the window and watched my little free spirit sink into a big pile of leaves.  His smile and the rosy tint of his cheeks lured me outside and I sat on the cool ground and watched him play.  Completely unphased by man-made forces - time, stress, efficiency, plans - things that dictate so much of our day-to-day lives, he's just there, to be himself, to soak up all the fun and goodness in his world, and to live deeply in the beauty that surrounds him.  With a canvas of blue sky and thick white clouds behind him, my boy twirled, laughed, and let himself fall freely into the leaves.  And as I watched, played, and snapped pictures of this perfectly spontaneous moment on a Saturday afternoon, I felt my own stress begin to fall like those crisp autumn leaves.   

Time and time again, he teaches me what it means to live.  Seasons are so short, and there are so few opportunities to play in the leaves.