A Leaf Full Of Love
My 4 year old has been exasperating me on the walks to and from school for the last week or so. Now that we're moving into Fall, the sidewalks are littered with leaves and he has an obsessive need to look at them all. Okay, maybe that is a bit of an exaggeration, but he needs to stop and look at a lot of them, collect a bouquet and drag them along with us to our destination. I usually do my best to hurry him along, but today we were running a little early, so I let him stop and look to his heart's content.
Today, near the library, he bent down and picked up this one:
Boy#3: "Mommy, dis weaf weminds me of you betause it is shaped wike a heart, and I wuv you SOOOOOO much."
Sometimes we are so focused on our destination, we forget about the beauty of the journey.
If we had been in a hurry, I would have missed this heartfelt gem from my youngest and it was precisely what I needed to hear this morning. I've been feeling a little underappreciated and a little unnecessary lately -- a reminder from my 4 year old that I matter to him (and from the 11 year old, who echoed the sentiment a moment later) has turned a gloomy, cranky day into a day with a glimpse of sunshine.
I have been feeling overwhelmed, and I need to make sure that I don't lose myself in my list of tasks and miss what is going on around me. My boys are growing up so very fast and I don't want to miss a moment.