practice what i preach

yesterday was a gorgeous fall day here in north western new jersey, so i decided to take an hour before it got dark (so stinkin' early now!) to rake up some of our leaves.  if you've never been to our house, then you probably don't realize that our house is nestled into a little valley, with a few trees in our front yard, and about 250 of them in the back.  if we don't start raking in mid-october and then keep it up, we often have trouble finding our front door.  i kid, i kid.  but seriously:  lots.of.leaves.  so, i thought i would rake some of them yesterday, thinking that every little bit helps.  so jack came out with me and we worked pretty hard at raking up large piles and putting them on tarps to take up to the road, where they will sit until some leaf-sucking truck comes and carries them to leaf heaven (hell:?).  we were mostly working in the front yard, right along the sidewalk.  after about 45 minutes we had it looking pretty good, and were just finishing up for the day, when a gust of wind appeared, (literally) out of nowhere, and mockingly blew every leaf that had previously been sitting our our roof and dumped them right on the area that we had just raked.  i just stood there, shoulders slumped, a look of shocked disgust on my face.  but then i looked over at jack, who, with a huge smile on his face, just said, "yay!  now we have more leaves to rake up!"

an attitude of gratitude, we always tell him.  that's what you need.  looks like he's been putting it into practice.  looks like i need to practice what i preach. 

thank you, God of color and change, for the things that blow my way; for the way you meet me in the mundane moments.  for work and for play, for children and for crisp air, for the pallette of fall colors and the power of a child's simplicity: thank you.