To My Fellow Leaves

To My Fellow Leaves, the Common People of this World:

Greetings. The world has an awful lot to say about us these days. Once a year, it seems, we can be sure of getting our due. Social media is full of breathtaking pictures of us, accompanied by a quote of some sort. These quotes, of course, have varying degrees of inanity that are meant to be profound and too often, fall short.

Nevertheless, now is our time to shine. We, the commoners. The ones who are never missed except when there is no shade. The ones who clean the very air around us and help make the world a better place by plodding along day after day, doing the very same things over and over again with no immediate result. We are the good people. The overlooked. The caregivers. The people who are not fully appreciated until we start to die, fall to the earth and begin to be trodden underfoot. We, the servants. We are the leaves.

I have, my dear compatriots, discovered a quote I think as describes us best. It reads as follows.

~

The tragedy of the world is that so many are unloved. Roses always look beautiful and smell sweet, and hence they are a prize to be possessed. Sweetbriar, however, has fragrant leaves, and they are never so fragrant as when it rains. The common people of the world are like these leaves; they have something fragrant about them, particularly when the days are dark and clouded and rain falls in their lives. Anyone can love a rose; but it takes a great heart to love a leaf.

Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen

~

It takes a great heart to love a leaf.

It takes a great heart to love a leaf.

What is loveable about monotony? Are we loveable when we feel that in the great play of life, we were cast in the part of the drudge? Who else is discouraged every time you vote seeing the immoral candidates win? Who else gets tired of turning the other cheek but at the end of the day, turns it anyway and will turn it again tomorrow? Who volunteers at church? Who doesn't need recognition but SOME appreciation would be nice once in a while? Us. The leaves.

The road to notoriety is paved with anonymity. And yet, it's not really notoriety we want, is it? We just want our ordinary, every day sort of goodness to take root in this aching world that so badly needs our love and yet avoids admitting it at all cost. We want to feel like we are making a difference.

The world is a scary place right now, but like Gandalf, I happen to beleive it is the ordinary folk who keep great evil at bay through small acts of kindness and love. Gandalf, a great wizard (and to go along with the analogical theme of this blog post, a rose), looked to Bilbo (a nobody, a leaf) for courage when he foresaw the doom of the world. The rain had started falling fast and heavy and suddenly the little everyday actions of a hobbit were what could save the world.

My fellow Leaves, Commoners, Peasants, Ordinary Folk...it takes a great heart to love us. And on days when you feel forgotten, remember that the greatest heart of all (God) sees your worth and values you right along with the roses.

The rain is coming, friends. It is to you the world will turn when things go wrong. Be ready to astound the world with the fragrance of your ordinary little lives.