ruined

I'm a little bummed about harsh comments here and at a co-worker's blog. Usually, I would not let other people's comments bother me, except that this time, I caused them, and possibly drove a wedge between this coworker and myself. That ain't right.

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Flipping through archived pics, I found this one that I took in late October.

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It was a most pleasant afternoon. The autumn sun shone bright, providing a warm complement to the day's cool breeze. Reports of deer drove me deeper into the conference center's walking path with my camera. As I crunched over the fallen leaves, I knew it would have been a rejuvenating walk whether or not I found any subjects to photograph. I did. It was almost surreal to be in that place of pure contentment. I took my time and soaked it all in.

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Then this cigarette snapped me back to reality. All of the sudden, somebody's carelessness marred what would have been a perfect experience! This piece of litter did not belong in that place, and now my nature walk was ruined. That trash wasn't part of the man made rustic beauty in the skillful brickwork, and it certainly wasn't an element of nature that I came to experience. Deep down, I resented the culprit who vandalized this sacred place and every other litterbug as well.

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Where do I go from here? For all I know, that "litterbug" could have been a preoccupied employee who was treated unfairly. Maybe a parent who is at their wits end from a rebellious child or concerned over a sick relative. Perhaps it was somebody who doesn't care about anybody else, but I couldn't know that, could I? So I snapped a photo and walked away.

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You know, sometimes I treat people the way I want to be treated, and sometimes I ignore kindness and demand that a thing be fixed or paid for. Sure, there's a time to stand up for what is right, but sometimes I just need to lighten up. After all, I will be judged by the same measure that I use to judge others... and I always prefer being treated with grace and mercy. Plus, I need to stay aware that my actions... good, bad or indifferent, are going to be a reflection of the church. (Ooh, that's scary.)

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That October nature walk wasn't ruined; it was a lesson that I needed to hang on to.

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Today I find that I want kindness even though I was slow to dispense it. Does that make me a hypocrite? Maybe it does. Or maybe it just makes me human.

guzzling goslings

Just look at this! Can you believe these baby geese?! They're boozing it up and trashing my fishing spot. I blame the parents. Don't tell me they don't know what's going on.

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I deduced that the beer guzzlers MUST have been these goslings, because people would know better, right? I mean, humans are much too sensible to desecrate a place of tranquility and beauty. And besides, the proper removal of trash would be problematic for little bills and webbed feet, but no problem at all for a human being, so it is hardly thinkable that it would have been a person to leave this trash on that site. ...Right?

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I wish!

What a mess!

It almost got past me! Today is Blog Action Day. I expect there will be a lot of talk out there about environmentalism. My two cents will go in as well.

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Let me start though, by saying that the human race is not the enemy of the earth. I really think that a lot of people are over reacting to some things and that it is an abysmal joke that Al Gore received a Nobel Prize for environmentalism.

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But just because I do not share all things in common with some environmentalists, that does not mean that dominion over and stewardship of the rest of creation is completely unimportant.

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As you can see in this old photo, we allowed our son's face to become messy while he ate. We cleaned everything up afterward, but we didn't hover over him with a sanitizing wipe after each smudge. His mess was normal. It was not deliberate, so we did not take offense.

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The thing that really gets me is a deliberate disregard for others, like when people empty their car's trash on the street. Or discarding anything on the sidewalk rather than inside a waste receptacle. If the wind carries a candy wrapper out of the trash and into my lawn, it's okay; I'll pick it up with no hard feelings. But don't let me catch anyone casually tossing an ice cream wrapper on my lawn. That bugs me worse than dandelions!