Talking Leaves...{Hearing With Your "Eyes"}
I stand on my front porch as I often do, looking out at a world that sometimes can be cold and cruel. Today, is not a day that it cruel but the breeze that blows across the yard is cold. I watch the leaves as the tumble down the street. They chase one another, pushed by the wind that moves like an unseen broom, lifting them a little from the cold pavement, flipping each leaf over and over as they pass in front of me.
My mind can not help but think of children, running after each other on a playground, laughing as they run. If you close your eyes and open your mind, you can hear their laughter. The leaves spin in a circle, one behind the other, as if they are playing a child's game. "Around and round the merry-go-round, the monkey chased the weasel" the leaves seem to sing to me. The wind suddenly stops for a moment and the leaves drop to ground. As if they have found a spot to sit, "Pop goes the weasel" is whispered in my ear. I smile at the memories of my own childhood and for a moment, I yearn for the days when life was so simple.
My thoughts go to less simpler times, the present, and I sigh to myself. It is Christmas time and I know in my heart that I should be smiling. I think of the year that has passed all to quickly. So many changes have occurred since 2011 began. There have been wonderful things that have been very much, changes for the better. A new home and additions to the family, young and older have brought with them, joy's immeasurable. Their have also been disappointments and feelings of falling short of what should have been. Sales of my novels come in to my mind. They were slow and small and I believed in them enough to imagine the sales to bring in money for just such times as Christmas. It is only a few days until Christmas and I still have gifts to buy for loved ones.
I shiver and pull my collar up on my jacket to cover my ears. The chill in the air cuts through my clothing, seeking out any small opening in my coat to slip into and chill me to the bone. As I look towards where the leaves had all fallen down, the wind snatches them from the ground again. They do not run across the street this time. They twirl and quickly, they are sucked in to the air, looking like a tiny tornado or cats chasing their tails. I smile once more as I follow the leaves higher and higher, until I am looking at the Sun coming up over the houses. The trees now cast their shadows on the ground, darkening the grass they touch. Looking like a child's face after they have slept in one position all night, pillow marks on their cheek, the ground is now etched with the shadows belonging to the trees.
Back down to the ground the leaves fall, the wind wisting them apart from one another, they touch the ground and begin to blow down the street again. Some of the leaves stop for a moment while others move on. I once again hear the laughter of children and the screams of those now in pursuit again of the other leaves, touching one another lightly, calling out, "tag... you're It!." And again, I am reminded that this year, I did not reach the goals I had set for myself and that I will steal from my account monies that are not there. Over-draft will be my way to be sure that those I love have gifts.
Christmas... the season for giving and sharing and loving and laughter. It is a time when such things should not be so important and that the celebration of Jesus' birth should be all that matters. We tell ourselves that it is so. We anxiously wait for that special moment when the tree lights are all aglow and the house smells of fresh coffee. The kids are squealing with excitement and the sound of wrapping paper being torn from boxes fills the air.
I look once more at the leaves blowing down the street. They once again chase each other and the sound ofchildren screaming and laughing fills my ears. Lights on houses are turned off and the day begins. I look to the sky above me and take a long deep breath in and then, I smile, for just a moment or two. I forget about sales that were far too low to fill out Christmas and of any short comings my brain would prefer me to remember. I think about a baby, born in a manger, his parents poor and yet, they didn't worry about those things. They Were bringing into our world baby Jesus, our Lord and Saviour. Whatever worries they may have had, they were set aside until after the birth. Perhaps... just maybe, I too will set aside my worries, listen to the sounds of those leaves, whispering in my ear and hear the world through my eyes. The beauty that is Christmas... sounds heavenly.
Run, run, run little leaves and chase one another up and down my street. Swirl in the air like a giant top being played with by a child. Give to my eyes the music that sometimes my ears forget to hear. This is Christmas and today, I pray only for peace on Earth.