Notes from public school - day 106

life

I remember sitting on the front porch steps of my house off of East Lee Road in Taylors, South Carolina. It was morning, an early foothills morning, with cool, crisp air coming down from the mountains and rainbow laden dew drops on the grass at my feet, the dawn of a new day.

Two maple trees were in front of me, one to my right and the other to my left. They were the same age as me. Dad planted them when I was born. Sometimes I dream that he was planting them on the very day I was born. As he is tamping the fresh dirt with the back of the shovel, Mom comes to the door and tells him that it is time for me to be born. Those maple trees are a part of me, and I am a part of them, as each life is a part of all life.

A small, wide spruce tree was to my right at the corner of the yard. It reminded me of all the Christmas mornings I woke with my two younger brothers in the room and said, “Let’s go peek and see if Santa came!” It reminded me of how much I love my family, of how giving and grace are the most important parts of being a family.

The leaves on the maple trees and the needles on the pine were green, a young, strong green the color of spring. Summer would soon come and put it’s arm around the shoulder of spring and gently walk it out the back door into hot, humid, Southern days. But that day was cool and clear, a good day to close my eyes and take in a slow, deep breath of fresh air, a good day to think, to feel, to be.

Today I’m thinking about fall and winter, fall maple leaves that look as if God dabbed them with colors from a heavenly palate just for me, and winter evergreen pine needles that gently hold the new fallen snow that makes it look like it is encircled by a long, winding, snowy, mountain road.

Friends are like those maple leaves, beautiful colors that God paints into our lives. Life is like those evergreen pine needles - long, winding, snowy, mountain roads with moments of chaos when we feel as if we will fall off the side of the mountain into utter darkness and with moments of beauty when we feel as if we should smile back at God.