November 8, 2015
(If we live with an open and
grateful attitude, every day will bring a gift. This is one of 365 gifts during
the year I turned 70.)
This morning I awoke to a perfect day for walking in my local park. I hopped in my car to drive two miles, showed my lifetime senior
pass at the entrance, set my Fitbit for tracking exercise and got out of my car
ready to walk. I set out on the perimeter path, about 3 ½ miles. Soon my
thoughts began flowing freely. From the Chesapeake Bay side to the Bodkin Creek side,
I felt relaxed.
Oddly, in the middle of surrounding nature sounds, I was
astonished to meet a park employee coming toward me, carrying either a battery
or gas pack on his back and sweeping back and forth, to create and scatter dust
devil swirls to one side or the other. I gestured and he turned off the jarring noise so we could talk.
“Why are you doing this?”
“To clean the leaves off the path. I’ve done this
four times already this week and the leaves keep falling.” (Duh!)
“Yes, I can see that but why is this necessary?”
He was at a loss at first and then pointed to a
slight bump on the path, indicating that if it were covered with leaves, people
might trip.
I told him that I found this to be incredible and
to please convey to his boss that one park member looked forward to taking leaf
photos and hearing the leaves crinkle and crunch on her walk.
He seemed to try to comfort me by saying, “I’m sure
you’ll find some leaves have already fallen where I’ve just cleared.”
He was right. I found one in a small puddle and took
a photo with my cell phone. At the end, I had completed 4.9 miles and crunched a few newly fallen leaves.
My
gift today is Mother Nature’s victory.
 |
| Left path had just been cleared by a leaf blower. I turned around and saw the one on the right which had not yet met the noisy machine. Which path would you prefer to walk on in natural surroundings? |
> Day 335 What is a Life Worth?
You can find links to my other posts on this project here:
http://bjschupp.blogspot.com/2014/12/365-gifts.html
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