Leaves of Grass

This page last updated on 01/26/2019.

I was lying in the grass in the backyard with my 2½ year old daughter, Serena. We were talking about bugs...what kinds there were, that they have six legs, that some can fly, etc. She rolled over on her belly, picked a blade of grass, and held it up in wonder. It was the first time I ever saw her look closely at grass. She studied it with a sort of astonished look on her face. I felt a funny feeling stirring inside of me. That look of wonder on her face...I'd felt that before, long ago... When I was a kid, I used to lie in the backyard just like this and stare in wonder at clouds floating by. I had gazed astonished at the amazing miracle of life in a single blade of grass. I had wondered what it was like to be a bug. Serena had jolted me back in touch with some profound basic of life. Something I understood as a child but had long since forgotten.

Since those days of wonder as a child, I had become preoccupied with school, marriage, career, etc. The roar of all that activity had drowned the simple joys of life. The wonder and miracle of creation. The simple majesty in a humble blade of grass. Grass I don't even think about as I tread over thousands of its blades every day. Even a single blade of grass lives an extraordinary, miraculous life. If man had somehow manufactured a living blade of grass that could reproduce, live off soil, sunlight, and water, fight off disease, and grow, we would hail it as a technological marvel.

I realized that having forgotten this basic wonder and appreciation for life, I had become kind of jaded. Life had been reduced to a seeking after experiences. A kind of decadence had set in. I thought I needed friends that were cool, activities that were exciting, and things that were clever. I was missing the boat. The truly valuable things in life don't advertise with a neon sign. They are the quiet things, the humble things. You have to seek them out, they don't come to you. You have to look in the right places. May I suggest starting in your backyard with a blade of grass.