Simple offerings

This morning my granddaughter was insistent on taking a walk in the neighborhood.  She's three, so she doesn't really have timetables in her mind nor the exact plan on what she wants to do when she takes walks.  Many times she likes to go to the creek that runs through the neighborhood in the natural area about 50 yards from our house.  But, not today.

Today, she wanted to walk on the streets and sidewalks.  It's a quiet neighborhood on a cul-de-sac street, so passing cars are not a problem.  She had a small plastic bucket with her.  She collects rocks and acorns usually, but not today.  At first, she wasn't collecting anything, so I suggested she collect the different colored leaves lying on the ground.  She started collecting all sorts of colored leaves, all sizes and shapes of leaves too.  She would fill her bucket, then dump out the leaves and collect more leaves.  We probably went through 4 buckets full of leaves.

Finally, we came inside to get out of the cold.  She had to show her mother and grandmother her leaf collection.  Her grandmother made a little, temporary Thanksgiving scene on the kitchen table so that my granddaughter could be proud of what she did on her morning walk.

I contemplated our actions of the morning.  She didn't set out to collect leaves when we left the house.  She had no plan.  But, she took my suggestion and had a lot of fun doing something a little different from the norm.  Someone else took what she collected and made a really nice seasonal design for all of us to enjoy over the next several days.

And that meditation this morning was a comforting and warm thought this cold day.  There are periods in the season of our lives in which there is no plan.  We're comfortable where we are and don't want to necessarily do anything different.  Either circumstances or a person suggest(s) that we do something a little different with our days.  When we try that, it turns out that someone else can take what we have done and make something really enjoyable and nice from it.  These are good moments in life.  And we enjoying seeing smiles all around in our world.