For some people, summer means going on trips, vacations, exotic get aways. For me, it means I get to stay home. I’m not complaining at all. I enjoy down time with the family. I’ve been getting some things done around the house. I’ve even had a few moments when I did nothing but take a midday nap. It’s been pretty awsome.

Besides the occasional cat nap, it seems all I do these days is swim. It’s crazy because, I don’t really like swimming. I put the pool in hoping it would keep the kids busy, home, and entertained. It didn’t turn out exactly how I planned, but that’s pretty normal in my life. The pool was definitely a lifesaver during the shut down last year.

Anyway, every day that we go swimming, I start by skimming out all the leaves. I have a lot of beautiful trees and shrubs around my pool that like to donate to the use of clorine by sending their offspring on suicide missions into my pool. My pool guy is not amused….so I do what I can.

As I scooped the little leaf carcasses out of the water the other day, I came upon this little guy. I love finding hearts in nature! I have a section on my phone just for these little beauties. As I looked at this, I thought to myself that maybe I didn’t want to take a picture because it wasn’t really perfect. It has some yellowing and that dark spot on the side that really takes away from the beauty of the heart.

I started to scoop it up with all the other leaves when it struck me that this leaf is actually a lot like me. At one point, I’m sure I had a perfect, beautiful heart. Then, as I went through life…things happened that have changed my heart a bit. There is a bit of damage there, some blemishes if you will.

I think we all have hearts like this. Really, if we haven’t ever been hurt or experienced some heart ache, we haven’t truly used out hearts. I decided I loved the way this nature heart looked. Everything that had happened to this leaf had shaped him into something uniquely beautiful.

I certainly don’t go seeking heartache, but when it comes it is more of a confirmation that I have loved. And isn’t that what life is all about?

Cause I said so.

Photo credit: Me