As I squatted on the brick sidewalk to take this photo during my lunch time walk, a nice-looking older man stopped and asked “what is it?” He was quite tall and standing at an angle that would not have showed the shape as well as from where I was positioned.

“Stand on this side; what do you see?” I asked. He looked from my perspective. “A leaf,” he said with a quizzical expression, wondering why a dessicated bit of English ivy would have captured my attention sufficiently for me to take a photograph.

“Look again,” I suggested. “Can you see anything else?”

“Ah,” he said with delighted recognition: “it’s a heart.”

“Yes. I see them and other interesting shapes in all sorts of things–litter, blackened chewing gum, the pavement itself.”

“Everything has more than one form,” he rejoined. “You are blessed.”

And thus we went our separate ways, having brightened our day with this small connection. If he lives in the neighborhood, no doubt we will recognize each other enough from this encounter, at least to smile and say hello.

Peace and light, E — Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.