Trish’s Blog

The kids and I froze our tails off when we went down to the marina on Lake Houston near our house to participate in the annual Trash Bash. Our church ward planned it as a service project for the youth. Since Sarah is counted among this group now that she is in Young Women, I planned to take her. I brought Zack because he is in Cub Scouts and Seth just didn’t want to be left behind. Zoe was sawing logs when we left her in Daddy’s care. It would not have been fun for her. She know the joys of sleeping in. I was surprised that I was able to get up and stay up. It kind of hurt to wake up so early, but once I was brushing my teeth, I was fine. I got the kids up and they dressed warmly, or so we thought… the wind was brutal near the water’s edge. We were only at the check-in location long enough to register, get our t-shirts, gloves and trash bags. Then we went to a different location to collect trash along the side of the road.

The area is really pretty and my kids were having so much fun communing with nature. They raced each other to see who could fill their bags first and showed anyone nearby what they found. Sarah found a wooden cane. It was a good find because she used it to pull glass bottles out of a flooded area. Zack claimed to have collected 11 glass bottles that were unbroken and three broken ones. Then he and Sarah found a tire. Seth was ahead of us and came back to declare that his bag was full and he was taking a break. He then found a mattress set with Sarah. There was a bunch of trash and I got really grossed out. Up until that time, I had picked up cigarette butts, pieces of beer cans looked to have been used as target practice, coffee cups, styrofoam, plastic bags, and a few beer bottles. It was fine up until we found someone’s “camp ground” as Sarah called it. I was glad that everyone else was done by then and we could go home.

Gross, huh? What is it with people who litter in the first place? Such blatant disregard for the environment astonishes me. Do we really need to teach this every year? I can understand teaching children how to care for the earth, but grown people who smoke cigarettes, drink coffee and beer? I picked up after them today and I hope that they drove by and noticed. I hope that they had a change of heart. I hope they made a decision not to mess with Texas. “The world is not your ashtray,” as Josh likes to say.

Going out and serving the community in this manner brought instant blessings to my family. They were happy to be out in the sunshine, mud and fresh air. Because of the crazy rain/hail yesterday, the air was pretty clean of pollen. My nose was still running, but I think that was more because of the chilling wind. It was funny when the kids would yell, “Oh! Trash!” and then run to pick it up. Who knew that they could get excited about picking up trash? We had fun being with friends from church and talking while filling our bags.

I found beauty in the rubble. Dirt had found its way into a little glass bottle lying on its side. I picked it up and saw little plants with green leaves growing inside. I should have taken a picture of it. I also found blackberries (I think) growing over the trash I was picking up when I moved it aside and pricked my finger. I didn’t see the berries at first, but the thorns got my attention. I did take a picture of that.

This event is now my new family tradition. I want us to do this every year. Now that we know what to expect, we can be more prepared and dress a little warmer. Anyone want to come with?

Posted on March 28th, 2009 by trish
Filed under: Haley Kids, Life