July 22, 2008 – So what is it about these leaves in the birdbath, that they catch my eye and touch me? There is something slightly emotional about them, the way they are waiting, floating around. Five or six more of them blew into the stone birdbath today, and I got home around dusk and I really like the way that late light plays on the water, just revealing enough color, but not too bright. The birdbath, like almost everything else in the world, has a story to tell, if you are looking for it and listening.
  I think the story is that life is short, and how we spend it is important, and it is possible to find peace and calm and fulfillment if you look for it and work hard. At least that’s the story I saw of this leaf, which can’t be more than a couple of months old.
  And it’s probably the story I want to find. I don’t know if it’s a happy ending or not, but it seems graceful, a good way to end the life of a leaf.
  You can make too much of small and ordinary things, yet if you do notice them, you can connect with a sense of the nature of life itself, and its beautiful, sometimes brutal rythyms and cycles.