10 Jul Caught
We
have a new video doorbell that allows us to see who approaches our house. For
the first few days, I really liked watching who had come to the door while we
were away, noticing where my packages were placed and screening visitors to
decide whether to open the door (or not). Pretty soon, I had lots of video
clips of people who rang my doorbell, but my interest in studying each video
had waned. Today, I was alerted that I needed to delete some files because my
video storage was full.
While deleting files one by one, I noticed one showing a man leaning over the
planter next to our front door. “What is this?” I thought suspiciously. “Who is
this stranger snooping in our planter? Maybe he’s hoping we left a spare key
hidden in the dirt. Perhaps I should be monitoring this more closely!”
I played the clip from the beginning. It started out innocently enough. The man
was delivering a package. He rang the doorbell, holding the package under his
arm. When we didn’t answer the door, he placed the package between the door and
the planter. Then he turned around, looking as if he were headed back toward
his truck. Suddenly, as if forgetting something, the man looked back toward our
door and took a few steps toward it. His face leaned down near our planter.
Even though this video was grainy, I could clearly see the man’s expression.
I watched the man smile as he gently touched one of the delicate gardenia
flowers in the planter. He closed his eyes, smelled the fragrant white flower
for a moment, then turned and walked away.
A smile spread across my face as I watched him. It was a beautiful moment
capturing someone who took an extra second to notice and appreciate the small
joys of life. We all might benefit from stopping to smell the flowers a little
more.