A Step Past the Mat

Wiggling free from the cozy knit mitten on the hallway bench, I shuffled down to the front door and noticed a tiny crack left open to the outside morning air. Slipping quietly through the opening, I stepped out onto the wide wooden porch boards. Resting right against the woven coco mat was a smooth, weathered wooden clothespin and a glossy green ivy leaf blown in from the yard. With measured, gentle nudges of my rounded boots, I clipped the flat leaf stem between the jaws of the peg, standing it upright on the weathered grain. It looks like a tiny, jaunty signpost greeting the wide neighborhood beyond.