(In honor of Valentine’s Day, I’m sharing a post on the topic of love each day this week. Today’s post is from fall 2015 and looks at the way love can lead and open doors. When our own love is worn and lacking, we can always lean on the love of another.)
In the rush between dinner and dessert, in the harried press to Get-These-Kids-to-Bed, four-year-old Isaiah remembers.
Running through the house, he shouts, “Guys! We need to do our yeaves!”
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My family is growing leaves again this Thanksgiving.
Last Tuesday I cut contact paper into the shape of a large, barren tree and stuck it to the wood paneled wall in the living room. Then we cut a bowl-full of leaves. Every evening we each write what we’re thankful for on a leaf and stick it to the tree. By Thanksgiving the tree will be full and green, vibrant.
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Isaiah doesn’t remind us to do our leaves because he’s so very grateful. Most of his leaves proclaim anticipatory gratitude for the handcuffs he hopes to receive for Christmas (heaven help us). He reminds us because after the note’s written, he gets to color his leaf and Isaiah is a big fan of coloring. He’s been known to spend a whole afternoon coloring at the kitchen counter.
He loves it. And his love leads us, even if it has nothing at all to do with gratitude.
That’s the way love is.
Love opens doors, makes way, and helps us remember what we set out to do, who we wanted to be, when we ourselves have forgotten. And if we don’t have enough love of our own, all we need to do is follow someone else’s, to sit for a while in the glow of their passion and delight.
I don’t love coloring like Isaiah does, but his love for it cuts through the evening rush, spurs memory and reminded, we follow in its wake.
