Under foot

I saw this little leaf while I lapped the park on my walk today and for the next four minutes, I found myself hoping over and over again that it would be there when I got back around.

Instead of finding it, the leaf blew toward me and stopped just short of where I might have stepped. I bent down to it, snapped a picture with my phone, cranked up my music and walked on. It was sunny and I couldn't even really see what image landed on my phone screen.

When I got home, I realized the shape that the shadow cupping the leaf made and it made me pause again.

It reminds me of Ruth Kaiser, the photographer who now makes her living collecting photos of unintentional smiles. She takes pictures of smiles in cigarette butts, mac and cheese, trees, wherever they appear to her. She considers it her mission, her way of seeking and spreading goodwill.

Maybe it could be mine to take a break when I'm breezing by, to find those little signs, not of smiles but of love. Maybe seeing it, really seeing how it emerges in the world around me, will help me capture a bit more for myself.

Or maybe it was just a divine moment that I was lucky enough to fall upon today.