Dancing through life like leaves

As I turned the page on an old, dusty photo album an image caught my eye. The image was one, taken seemingly a lifetime ago, when my eldest daughter was merely a toddler. Within the image, the sight of my child buried inside a large pile of fall leaves brought a smile to my face. A smile like the gleaming smile portrayed on her face, preserved for all time all due to my taking a picture at that moment. Around her the cushioning comfort of leaves cast away by their maker. Above her, I could see the beauty of fall and feel the pending coldness of winter.

As I gazed upon the photograph my thoughts wandered to last year when as summer ended, and fall flowed in, I recalled sitting with my daughters watching as the leaves fell from the trees in our front yard. As each leaf fell it seemingly used all its remaining energy to avoid its final resting place, the ground. With movements, flowing and almost picturesque, the leaves seemingly embarked upon a dance. A dance which began as they left the security of the limb and continued to the ground.

Like birds in flight, each leaf performed its own distinctive dance. Filling the sky with beauty and grace as it made its journey. The falling leaves really never had the impact they had on me that day, previously. For some reason it just resonated with me. Watching the leaves perform their dance gracefully and without restraint on one hand and my daughters joyfully playing with the dancing leaves on the other, enlightened me to life, it seemed.

Life, my friends, is no different than the dancing leaves. Our lives are a dance. The dance is our journey. How high we fly and how eloquently we perform the dance of life is entirely up to you and me. Some of us may find pain in the fall or possibly even fear of no longer being attached firmly to our safe haven, while others find peace and resolve by making the journey. Either way, the dance will go on. The key is finding within us the ability to find a little enjoyment along the way.

Dance my friends. Find joy in the journey. For it is when we dance our way through the sky, we discover that when we arrive at our destination the journey was fulfilling and ultimately worth it. And better than that… we find our face bears a smile.

Richard J. Stephens lives in Carter County and is the father of three little ladies ranging in age from 9 to 29.