As more and more leaves are beginning to fall meaning Autumn is coming to an end
we remembered we promised to bring a collection of leaves back to Florida
to the children of our neighbors and friends.
So we’re catching fresh leaves as they fall…hoping we’ll make the right selection…
that we’ll find the perfect leaves…in a rainbow of colors…
for an Autumn leaf collection….
We couldn’t help thinking back to when we were young, innocent and protected
at all the things that amazed us back then…and all the things that we collected.
We collected dolls and rocks and bugs we’d find crawling in our yards…
seashells, coins, action figures…marbles and baseball cards…
But of all the collections we amassed…that our imagination and knowledge fed
the most important things we as children collected…were the words our parents said…
Their words of compassion…words of joy…
the way they said our name
their words of love…their words of hate…
we collected them all the same.
What made these words important…
the words our parents’ were choosing…
is that we caught and we collected them…
and they became the words that we’re now using.
So we are happy to add our assortment of leaves
gifted to us from the trees this Fall…
to their collection of words from their family and friends…
their most important collection of all.