Lani’s Acorn

When I was young and Christmas rolled around I would watch “It’s a wonderful Life”. They would pretty much give it in every channel and I would end up seeing it multiple times. It’s a great movie with a heartwarming message of our own value. Or at least the value we have and don’t even know.

There was this particular scene were George Bailey puts his daughters petals in his pocket from her flower. Later on he finds them and it tells him that he’s back that his love, his life, his family are once again his. Very poignant part of an excellent story and something we could all relate to. Even then when I saw the movie i understood the meaning. Yet I did not feel it completely until one day, doing nothing in particular I found my own Zuzu’s Petals.

One day as I made my way through life I plunged my hand into my pocket, a coat I had not worn in awhile, I pull out one solitary Acorn. Suddenly I was dropkicked by memory upon memory of my daughter picking up acorns and giving them to me to keep safe. My daughter was little and had acquired a fascination with acorns and wanted to keep everyone she found. Wether it was at the play ground, coming home from school, walking to grandmas, or what ever thing we were doing. After awhile, she stopped picking them up and yet still fascinated as she was there were no more acorns. At that moment I finally completely and whole heartedly understood the complete meaning of Zuzu’s petals.

It’s a captured moment in time that has gone by and yet here we are with the memory of the love that was there. Things we have forgotten because life has so many other things for us to be distracted by. If only we lived our lives in those moments instead of reliving them in flashbacks and that’s if we allow our minds to go back to the beautiful moments. For we are way too busy to understand that these moments we are living these moment we tend not to value as we live them are here and gone in the blink of an eye.

Time is a funny thing, it’s not important yet it is very important. It is a construct we have made yet because of it we live these moments. Yet do we ever truly live them especially when our heads are everywhere but the moment we are in. And going back to the movie do we ever realize our worth to others. Our importance in the flow of things.

Tell me have you had your ZUZU’s petals moment? Maybe you did and you weren’t even paying attention. For they hide in The ordinary, they hide in the everyday, they hide in the life we live and don’t see till we are in the future thinking back in time to moments long past. My advice to you is enjoy life as you live it. Live life as you go, be present in the present and cherish all those little moments that will be major moments in the future. I try to live in the moment as much as I can. It’s really hard and sometimes I do fail, but I’d rather try and fail than not live here in the now with moments that are here and gone way to fast.

Take a moment breathe that breath feel that air fill your lungs. In the winter it’s crisp and fresh, in the spring it’s wet and sweet, in the summer it hits and heavy and in the fall it is wet and crisp and sweet. Yet we don’t know cause we don’t breathe.

Go in your pockets and pull out those acorns, those petals, of moments frozen in our hearts. Of moments that are happening in the now. And relive them but remember to live them as they happen. Because with all we go through we forget it’s still a wonderful life.

We convince ourselves and allow life to beat us down and we lose sight of all the small moments that make life life. Live to live, find the joy, look for the reasons because just like George Bailey we are so stuck in ourselves that the bigger picture eludes us. It would be great if an Angel or Ghosts or someone would intervene to show us but sadly we need to be our own Angel our own ghosts our own intermediate and step in for ourselves.

Find those Petals those acorns and see don’t be blind. But when you are confronted by it all choose to see instead of not see. For there are those that are shown and say nay to it all. Now do yourself a favor and go watch it’s a wonderful life.