Trash and Treasure

I know all too soon the weather will turn cold, nights will be dark and long, and the possibility of quarantine or lockdown looms over our heads. Yesterday, however, the weather was beautiful, the sun was shining, and some beautiful autumn foliage still hung in the trees.

I went outside to do some chores and ended up cleaning the wooded slope that I can view from my front porch. This isn’t really my yard. I don’t walk through it and there isn’t a path to it from my house or parking lot. Part of this space isn’t even within the property line. I may be one of the only people who see it (deer, groundhogs, squirrels, and other wildlife certainly enjoy it), but I decided to be its caretaker.

I brought out a grocery bag to put trash in and soon discovered one wasn’t enough. I filled a few trash bags with plastic bottles, pieces of tires, food wrappers, and oh so much broken glass.

While working, I pondered how this task seemed profoundly Christian, even though it didn’t involve spiritual disciplines or even any other people. I cleaned up the trash in this infrequently used space for two reasons. First, I want to responsible for the earth (at least the parts I can be) and second, because I love beauty (trash isn’t beautiful).

When reading Genesis again recently with my roommate, I was reminded how humans were created and told to have dominion over the earth. They are not to manipulate it, nor solely to preserve its natural state. They are to tend, cultivate, and husband it. I was inspired by something Julie Witmer shared recently about how studies are showing a properly cultivated garden is more effective for supporting pollinators than even wild conservation areas. Wow! To me, this little fact is so beautiful because it reminds me that though mankind is responsible for much of the damage to the earth, they have the potential to bring so much goodness and beauty to nature because they are in God’s image. I love the beauty of a wild landscape and the beauty of a formal garden and everything in between.

While sorting through the trash, I even found a few interesting things. Old medicine bottles, pretty broken pottery, and a skull (species unidentified). While taking the bags of trash I collected to the dumpster, I discovered someone had left this wonderful, whimsical umbrella stand to be thrown out. I gave it a bird bath 😉 in my utility sink and I can’t wait to use it. Perhaps I should retract my earlier statement. Maybe some trash is beautiful to the right person. (If the neighbor who threw it out is reading this, I hope you don’t mind that I took it, I just couldn’t leave it!)

In late winter, I’ll comb through this area again for trash and clear away fallen branches. Then I’ll scatter wild flower seeds for a low maintenance garden I can enjoy from my porch this summer.