Kicking Leaves

kicking leaves.jpg

I love the start of Autumn, I love October half term, I enjoy the muddy walks and the warm drinks, I really love the cosy evenings and the promise of Christmas.

I even love the grey that comes with the rain.

This week I have spent a bit of time at the Stroke unit in Winchester hospital, where I have needed to face the fragility of life head on. We can be motoring through life, kicking leaves without even seeing them but then - BAM! everything changes.

For some of those lovely people I met in the hospital even lifting a spoon of soup to their own mouth is an unreachable goal.

That in itself is really really scary but I have found the downward spiral of thought almost just as frightening.

I came to this conclusion: We can spend our days forever worrying about what might happen, thinking about what is just around the corner. Or we can spend our days really squeezing as much life out of them as we can.

None of us can ever know what is next, and we all know that shouldn’t take what we have fore-granted but sometimes, when you get reminders like a few days in the stroke ward, you really need to sit up and take note.
So we have decided to kick leaves with extra gusto and appreciation for all the things that we can do and that God has richly blessed us with.

                

Matt Jones#fall, #autumn, #kickingleaves, #seethingsdifferently, #differentperspective, #rebelhealth, #rebelpathways, #beencouraged, #kidlit, #kidlitart, #kidsillustration, #bookillustration, #childrensbooks, #childrensillustration, #illustrations, #illustrator, #illustration, #illustrationart, kickingleaves, begratefulComment