This is in memory of my friend's mother Delanie Marie Kreuziger and in loving memory of all of those who pass on so many valuable lessons to us before they pass on.

When I was a child, my friend and were in a very creative mood one day and we decided to do a little decorating of my grandmother's front porch. Why? I have no idea anymore, but I think we wanted to "create" something nice for my grandmother. We shared a vision of making her very grey porch into something much more pretty.

There was a hedge of bushes along the side of her house and the porch was in the center of her house. We decided we would make my grandmother's porch floor into a lush, blankety, green carpet using the very unusual leaves from the bushes. We knew she would enjoy having this soft green "carpet" instead of the drab floorboards that were there.

Painstakingly, we plucked perfect leaves and carried them over to the porch and spread them lovingly into a beautiful design. We didn't just throw the leaves there on the porch, we layed them out as carefully as any tile setter would do. After all, we were making a thing of beauty for my grandmother. We were brightening up her day. This took us hours, or what seemed like hours, but was a complete labor of love.

As we placed the very last leaf and stood back to view our work, a woman came running up the driveway screaming, yelling and shooing, flailing and waving her arms. To our utter surprise she was yelling at us, telling us we should be ashamed of ourselves, telling us we had totally ruined the bushes, asking us what in the world we were thinking, telling us what a horrible mess we had made. What we were thinking was that we were doing something nice for someone. It wasn't our intention to ruin or hurt anything.  In her fury, eyes wide with anger, she pounded on my grandmother's door.

My grandmother was inside doing grandmother things. She opened the front door and the fragrant aroma of oatmeal cookies made with sweet molasses wafted out like a gentle breeze, to meet with the enraged woman, the two astounded little girls, and the new soft green carpet that was now all messed up from the neighbor lady's rantings.

My grandmother listened to the woman with a faint glimmer of amusement in her eyes. She looked down in surprise at the gift of greenery that had been bestowed upon her, and told the woman she would take care of it. The lady left then, mumbling to herself and shaking her finger at us in disgust.

My grandmother taught me many things that day, the most important of which was to stay on center, especially when you can't do anything at all to change something. She wasn't rattled at all by this lady. To her, the woman was making a big deal out of nothing much and wasting her energy. We couldn't paste the leaves back on the bushes, even though we offered to do so.  She surveyed the "damage" that was done to the bushes and rolled her eyes.  Then she went and got a broom, but not before she thanked us for this beautiful gift with a bright smile and a plate of warm cookies. 

As the three of us sat there on the porch enjoying the sweetness of life, my grandmother said. "The leaves will grow back."  And in that moment, I was taught by my grandmother how to move forward.

With Angel Love,

Dyan


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