Thursday, February 11, 2016
One Man's Garbage...
I left the house at 6:57 this morning to go for a walk. The air was cool and crisp but I was wearing a Canucks hoodie, toque and walking gloves and ready to get my heart rate up a bit. Unfortunately, my iPod Nano was out of battery power so I'd have to forego my usual slew of 80's and 90's songs on shuffle. "Guess I'll pray a bit" I thought to myself, as though it was a disappointing second option compared to hearing Collective Soul's Gel for the millionth time.
Out the door and down the driveway, I hang a left and walk briskly along my neighbourhood sidewalk. The familiar concrete with all of its cracks and bumps will get me about 800m to the high school track where my knees will be a little more grateful for the slight cushion in this early morning exercise.
Then I pass a house where the garbage has been looted by raccoons. I slow down a bit, taking a look at the ripped bags and overflow of trash as I walk by, knowing the feeling of waking up to a mess from those nocturnal nuisances. It's a lousy feeling.
But, not my problem. And I continue on my way. "Sure would be nice if someone cleaned up that mess though, wouldn't it," I thought.
"Yes, it would."
Huh? Who said that? Wait. God? Is that you??
"Who else would it be, Dairn?"
Well, if it's a voice speaking to my heart about cleaning up the neighbour's trash, it's probably the devil, I chuckled.
"Haha, does the devil talk to you a lot about showing love to others, Dairn?"
Well, hardy-har-har, back God. I'm already 2 1/2 houses past the "raccoon destruction site" and I'm pretty sure that this walk is good for my health.
"You're right, it is. You don't have to do anything. You are free to keep walking."
Really? I slowed but kept moving forward. This is a trick. I furrowed my brow.
"Yes indeed, just keep on walking... no problem at all, it's your choice. I mean, it was just a coincidence that you left the house 3 minutes earlier than usual, right? And it's just because of the cold that you are wearing those gloves. Right?"
GRRRRRRRR!!!! Arguing with God sucks. So I turned around and went back to the place with the mess, telling God that I'd clean it up a bit as long as no one saw me. I was doing this out of the goodness of my heart. Okay, God?
"Oh yeah, sure, no problem."
The garbage can was overflowing already and I wondered aloud how I would get all the stuff on the ground back inside. No wonder it was easy pickings for the raccoons! I picked up a bunch of wet plastic bags, styrofoam containers with dripping chicken juice (these WERE nice gloves I bought at Winners for $16.99, I whined). There were gross sticky wrappers, a broken pen, 3 cut-up 2L bottles (who does that? You can recycle this stuff, I complained to myself!)...
"I didn't ask you to judge their garbage, Dairn, I just wanted you to clean up their garbage. Can you do that?"
Yes, I can do that. Almost done.
Slam. The front door. (God, we had a deal...) "Hi" I said to the long-haired man, "looks like the raccoons got to your garbage last night." Embarrassed, I told him I was a neighbour from down the street and I saw the mess and had time... and these gloves... And he (embarrassed as well) thanked me and stretched out his hand, "I'm John. I'll take care of this after work." I put the last couple pieces of trash back on top of the already-spilling can and placed the lid firmly on top.
I waved bye and headed back towards the school.
Now what, God?
"Now? Nothing. Finish your walk. Good job doing what I asked. The rest is up to me."
I don't know what that means. I have no clue if that guy is going to be wondering all day long about an act of kindness shown by a random neighbour. Or if he's going to be obsessing about how he caught some strange weirdo going through his garbage before the break of dawn. I guess that's up to God.
What I DO know is that I'm crying while writing this and I have no idea why. Probably because I don't do what I ought to do often enough. I need to listen more (to HIM, not to Blues Traveller) and simply love better.
And later, when I complained that my shins were hurting during the remainder of my walk (and how they shouldn't because I had done a good deed earlier... remember that, God?), I swear I heard him just chuckle....
Out the door and down the driveway, I hang a left and walk briskly along my neighbourhood sidewalk. The familiar concrete with all of its cracks and bumps will get me about 800m to the high school track where my knees will be a little more grateful for the slight cushion in this early morning exercise.
Then I pass a house where the garbage has been looted by raccoons. I slow down a bit, taking a look at the ripped bags and overflow of trash as I walk by, knowing the feeling of waking up to a mess from those nocturnal nuisances. It's a lousy feeling.
But, not my problem. And I continue on my way. "Sure would be nice if someone cleaned up that mess though, wouldn't it," I thought.
"Yes, it would."
Huh? Who said that? Wait. God? Is that you??
"Who else would it be, Dairn?"
Well, if it's a voice speaking to my heart about cleaning up the neighbour's trash, it's probably the devil, I chuckled.
"Haha, does the devil talk to you a lot about showing love to others, Dairn?"
Well, hardy-har-har, back God. I'm already 2 1/2 houses past the "raccoon destruction site" and I'm pretty sure that this walk is good for my health.
"You're right, it is. You don't have to do anything. You are free to keep walking."
Really? I slowed but kept moving forward. This is a trick. I furrowed my brow.
"Yes indeed, just keep on walking... no problem at all, it's your choice. I mean, it was just a coincidence that you left the house 3 minutes earlier than usual, right? And it's just because of the cold that you are wearing those gloves. Right?"
GRRRRRRRR!!!! Arguing with God sucks. So I turned around and went back to the place with the mess, telling God that I'd clean it up a bit as long as no one saw me. I was doing this out of the goodness of my heart. Okay, God?
"Oh yeah, sure, no problem."
The garbage can was overflowing already and I wondered aloud how I would get all the stuff on the ground back inside. No wonder it was easy pickings for the raccoons! I picked up a bunch of wet plastic bags, styrofoam containers with dripping chicken juice (these WERE nice gloves I bought at Winners for $16.99, I whined). There were gross sticky wrappers, a broken pen, 3 cut-up 2L bottles (who does that? You can recycle this stuff, I complained to myself!)...
"I didn't ask you to judge their garbage, Dairn, I just wanted you to clean up their garbage. Can you do that?"
Yes, I can do that. Almost done.
Slam. The front door. (God, we had a deal...) "Hi" I said to the long-haired man, "looks like the raccoons got to your garbage last night." Embarrassed, I told him I was a neighbour from down the street and I saw the mess and had time... and these gloves... And he (embarrassed as well) thanked me and stretched out his hand, "I'm John. I'll take care of this after work." I put the last couple pieces of trash back on top of the already-spilling can and placed the lid firmly on top.
I waved bye and headed back towards the school.
Now what, God?
"Now? Nothing. Finish your walk. Good job doing what I asked. The rest is up to me."
I don't know what that means. I have no clue if that guy is going to be wondering all day long about an act of kindness shown by a random neighbour. Or if he's going to be obsessing about how he caught some strange weirdo going through his garbage before the break of dawn. I guess that's up to God.
What I DO know is that I'm crying while writing this and I have no idea why. Probably because I don't do what I ought to do often enough. I need to listen more (to HIM, not to Blues Traveller) and simply love better.
And later, when I complained that my shins were hurting during the remainder of my walk (and how they shouldn't because I had done a good deed earlier... remember that, God?), I swear I heard him just chuckle....
# posted by Dairn @ 9:50 AM 
