This week I had the most wonderful sentiment expressed to me by my son. He said it in a voice of such complete and utter conviction that only a child can possess…”Papa, did you know that if you catch a falling leaf, you have good luck for a whole year”. I thought it was quite cute and innocent. It is autumn after all and leaves would be falling all around us. And then I moved on to whatever task was at hand, which of course was so important that I have no recollection of it now.
Then, a few days later, we went on our weekly bike/run ritual to the tow path in Princeton. It is really a fantastic place with water on both sides. One side is a lake and the other a canal which was dug by hand by Irish immigrants, way back. It was extensively used to carry coal laden Ox carts, wherein the oxen walking on the land were tethered to the coal carrying barges, moving coal from Pennsylvania to New York. There are places along the path where plaques declare that this area was also the route that Washington’s armies took in some important battles. I like going there for so many reasons and so does he.
So he was biking along and I was running. I was appreciating the fantastic mélange of fall colors and how beautiful the day was. The trees wore shades of yellow, orange, red and even pink at some places. There were lots of leaves floating listlessly in the water on both sides. At some patches on the tow path one can see really far out… almost a mile or so….There is a canopy of trees that covers the path at most places. Colorful trees and parts of the path get covered by colorful fallen leaves make for quite a spectacular sight. I somehow get a special joy in running over those leaves during autumn.
So here I was, looking far out into the horizon, totally lost in the moment, mentally ensconced in nature’s lap,when my reverie was broken by the sound of sudden brakes and screeching wheels on Devin’s bike. I knew that he was riding behind me so I turned around alarmed and saw him dismounting from his bike in a rush, with his face brightly lit and full of joy. I was puzzled to say the least until I realized what I was witnessing. A strong gust of wind had started dislodging some of the leaves from the trees and he was eagerly trying to catch them. I remembered the remark he had made a few days earlier and looked on in amazement. I looked at the leaves meandering down on uncertain paths. Some bigger ones were coming down as if in a swoon, others swaying like a pendulum. Some were making a double helix kind of path downward others were being carried away by invisible drafts of wind over towards the water. There were few really dead and shriveled ones that came straight down like a stone. The wind was gusting and swirling and making them dance around breathlessly. It was a beautiful sight, except that the little guy was having serious trouble getting hold of any of them. As soon as he would start tracking one, another would come along and distract him. Some he would follow all the way to the ground missing out on the easier ones to catch that seemed to fall all around him in the interim. He saw some fly away right into the water through his open palms. They were pretty dodgy and the wind made it harder still to catch them. He was having a blast though, happy as a lark, jumping, squealing, laughing twisting, turning and whatever else he did. I soaked in the sight as any father would. Soon enough the wind died down and we took off again, this time though, the wind and its speed and direction also having become part of my awareness zone.
Along the way we stopped a few more times and even though he is quite athletic and well-coordinated the falling leaves kept eluding him. His joy was not broken though. It was a game and he was having fun. He was happily biking along but I was getting keen on him catching a falling leaf so he would be lucky for the whole year, as he had told me.
After several unsuccessful stops in this regard and getting tired of waiting for the wind to pick up and so forth, I decided to intervene. The next time I saw a tree with lots of yellow leaves, and one that I could reach and shake, we stopped again and I started shaking the tree. Many leaves fell, well too many in-fact. Enough to confuse the heck out of our little guy, as to which ones to go after. We tried for a little bit till no more leaves would come off and we started off again. By now my mind had become disengaged from my run or the path or the colors or anything. I wanted him to catch the darn leaf somehow. To his credit, he did not seem concerned at all. We had some enjoyable conversations, stopped for water and such and continued on, reaching the half way mark from where we had to turn back. We sat around, read a plaque with some historic information, just chatted about stuff, threw some stones in the water, wondered about magnificent questions like what is the” biggest thing in the whole wide world” or “what is light made up of” . I clearly had to dodge some of them which brings us back to the dodging leaves.
As we stared heading back some creases of concern were starting to unfold on my psyche. We had about 3 miles to go but I was now aggressively scouting for the tree that I could shake and had my antennas up for the wind speed and direction. We made a couple more attempts with no luck still, for him. On one such attempt a freaking leaf landed on my wrist and stuck there due to sweat. I did not know what to think and was kind of pissed off at it. It appeared to shrivel up a little more under my gaze but stuck on all the same. I did not have the heart to announce about my impending good luck to Devin, since the strain of the ride as well as jumping around was starting to get to him. After-all what could I have told him. “Hey dude, see for all your effort you get nothing and here I am getting one for nothing”. That would be too much like real life don’t you think. I chose to linger on in the dream and so gently slid it away and paid close attention to how I could help him. I tried to improve his technique, asking him to not focus on any leaf that had passed his hip height and that he look up and….whatever other nonsense I could come up with. I started shaking trees quite vigorously I must say, sort of like a mad man. He also started picking up on my anxiety. Short of plucking a leaf and handing over to him I did everything that a father could do in such difficult circumstances. No luck still.
Then as we took off again and sound of my feet hitting the ground grew heavier, I heard yet another screech, turned around one more time, witnessed yet another dance of innocence and magic, both by the leaves and his sprightly feet and as if in a dream sequence saw him catch his lucky leaf. It was a big yellow one. We both looked at it closely with awe and amazement. One could even see the veins on it. It was kind of cool to the touch. Perhaps our activities had made our hands warm. It did not smell like anything he said. It had a big burly stem with a sort of bulb at the end of it. It wasn’t like any other leaves we saw. It was his lucky leaf. It was truly magical.
We both celebrated with hi-fives and threw some water at each other. I picked him up and ran some. We even plucked some leaves from the bushes. Then we drank some water and he got on to his bike, still holding on to his lucky leaf, as we headed back on our journey.
I think he had fun all along and it was a game for him. To me it was fun too, after all. But it also got me thinking that it only takes catching one falling leaf to be lucky for the whole year. Imagine that. It is all about perspective. It takes helping only one person to change their life. It takes living up-to just one commitment to change our own lives. It only takes one vote to change the nation. It only takes one hug to show that we care. It only takes one smile to make someone’s day. And, it only takes catching one falling leaf to be lucky for the whole year.…Ain’t it great
