Ugly Flower or Beautiful Decay

I work at a daycare. I like it there most days. On days like today with the snow finally melting and the sun coming out the kids get to run outside and yell and jump be warm and once again teach me more then I teach them. I was standing next to the building watching them play and as normal kids they were of course drawn to the messiest, muddiest corner of the play yard. the leaves that had been under the snow were now nothing more then black mushy decaying compost. This however was not how they saw it. One boy walked over to the pile picked up a leaf and brought it over to me in all it's droopy greatness and said "here Miss Kim I got you a flower." I said thank you and held onto it until the boy had run back to his game and forgotten all about it. The more I thought about it though the more beautiful it seemed. To the boy it wasn't a dead leaf, it was a token of friendship, he thought it was nice. How many times do I look at people or situations in my life thinking yuck I don't want this it's dirty and ugly. Why can't I see a flower in the mud? From now on that is my mission. To find the flower in the pile of decaying leaves.