After doing our
81st clean up at Access 16, we headed further down the beach to Access 39 so that my husband could stand up paddle board. When we walked up the access I saw this overflowing trashcan that normally would have made me so frustrated...
Even though trash was falling and blowing out all over the beach, I wasn't frustrated because I knew that I could fix this problem. I said to my husband,
"I'm not leaving it like this... I'm going to get a trashcan."
Hoping to find a near empty trashcan... I walked to the next access and then to the next... both trashcans were half full. I hesitated and thought to myself...
"What am I doing?? ... I don't know if I can do this... wait, I have to do this. Responsibility is NOT convenient." I made the decision to choose the closer of the two and I drug it across the beach...
In the midst of dragging the trashcan, I called my friend Ginger to let her know that I had officially lost it. Dragging the awkward, sticky, ant infested trashcan across the beach wasn't easy... but this is the way I saw it: There was a problem that needed to be fixed. Do I wish that people would have taken their trash with them instead of leaving it on the beach?? Absolutely. But they didn't. I can't change that.
I can't change what happened before me... I can only hope to change what happens after me.
Responsibility is not convenient. Doing the right thing takes extra effort... but trust me... it's always worth it. :)
Coming back from two beaches this morning I was thinking the same thoughts.
ReplyDeleteMy hero Tolkien wrote a couple great lines about this. (Better placed in the movies than the book, IMHO.) Frodo frets about the ugliness of his times. Gandalf reminds him that we can't change the times we live in; but we -can- decide what to do with the time we've got.
I -love- what you're doing with the time you've got! Hat's off.
Beautifully put! You're right, we can't change what has happened. But the future is all ours. I'm raising my glass to you for all you have done, and continue to do, for this green world!
ReplyDeleteThank you both for your kind words... really really appreciate it more than I can explain :)
ReplyDeleteAND...Harry, I think that it may be time that I finally sat down and watched all of the Lord of the Rings movies!!
My geek might be showing a bit. :) Seriously though, JRRT was neat; he was kind of the first serious greenie. It's less in the movies, but in the books all the good things in the world love & respect & nurture nature; while the evil things want to burn, rip, shred, and destroy it to serve them. Sounds just a bit like real life!
ReplyDeleteI recently went to Croatia and swimming one day I landed on a little island covered in trash. I just couldn't help myself and after finding a ever present shopping bag I started filling it. Well...after walking around a third of the island I filled 5 shopping bags with trash washed ashore. Sadly there was so much more I decided to leave for lack of time and a way to dispose of the trash. I wonder why nobody else is bothered by the trash at the beach like we are, it is disgusting. Maybe our actions will inspire few others to do the same.
ReplyDeleteMy kids appreciate my efforts, but I know that they think I am nuts sometimes.
Happy collecting!