A Gift From God June 8, 2009
Posted by millyonair in Things Environmental.Tags: beer, kayaking, Life, litter, Nature, outdoors, religion, River, Thoughts
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Photo from Southwest Paddlers
Yesterday, my husband and I rented a kayak and took a meandering trip down the San Marcos River. Before I met him, I don’t think I had ever once thought about kayaking. Since then, I have been kayaking three times, and each time, I am reminded how much I like it! Kayaking is like taking a walk, only you’re in a boat instead of on a path, and you’re using your arms and torso instead of your legs and butt.
It was a great way to spend a Sunday morning, communing with nature, and reacquainting myself with the pleasure of prolonged physical movement. Being in outdoors in a natural area is an almost-guaranteed way for me to connect with God. When I lived in Hot Springs, Arkansas, I was in the practice of taking a long hike on Sunday morning. It was irresistibly hassle-free because the city of Hot Springs is actually located within a national forest, and there are trail entrances all over the place. There’s just something about being enveloped in nature, surrounded by such beautiful complexity, that seems purer to me than any church building, no matter how ornate, or spartan.
And, because I can’t control myself about this: I had to pick up some trash. It never fails to amaze me how river enthusiasts are some of the worst offenders when it comes to littering! Besides being a form of pollution, litter is ugly! I pick up trash, not to be all -high-and-mighty about it, only because it strikes me that if I consciously notice a piece of littler and don’t pick it up, it’s like that piece of trash got thrown on the ground all over again.
My efforts, however, were appreciated by God, Who floated me a can of beer down the river. I reached out to grab what I thought was another piece of trash, and was rewarded with a cool, unopened can of Keystone Light. I know– you’re thinking Keystone Light, Milly? God must have not been overly appreciative! But that in itself was proof of Who sent it to me. Who else but God knew that I actually prefer cheap, watery beer when I’m on the lake, or at the beach or on the river?
I suppose God could just have lousy taste in beer.
Maybe. Or maybe, in a Universe of infinite possibilities, there is no such thing as lousy….
There are no such thing as small gifts; only small hearts!
Thanks for this post!
Dealing with litter is such a challenge. It truly gives me a headache. Sometimes I have to put blinders on to make it by the copious amounts of trash people leave in Mother Nature’s museum. Maybe if people learned to respect our planet more like a sacred museum, there would be a much more evolved look at how we treat her.
What is helping me deal with this ‘litter’ epidemic, I have started a photo gallery of all the corporate ‘logos’ and products that I come across. When I am ready, I will post this on online and thank all these companies for not educating their customers better about caring for our shared planet…
Plus I imagine if more people posted pictures featuring McDonald’s, Coke, Bud beer, Marlboro cigarette butts and other high profile international products being included in the free advertising of how these products trash our planet, maybe the corporations will shift a percentage of their focus on care for our earth, rather than just on profits for their stockholders…
It is pretty amazing now walking around with a camera, and realizing how much corporate evidence is available for photographic posterity, and of course all right there just waiting to be presented online… (I love the power of the internet).
Thanks for caring about our shared Gaia!!!
I checked out that link to the San Marcos River and wow! So beautiful, and funny to because I get Southern Living Magazine from my mom each month (she gets it from my dad’s parents who live in KY. and it drives my mom crazy that they send it to her in spite of the fact that she lives in Colorado, lol) and this month there was an article about the rivers of Texas or something and it was so pretty, just like the SMR. We will have to do something rivery, maybe next summer…the baby would love that, I would have to get over the snakes, though! YIKES! But I wanna do it….
Oh, that is so funny about SL magazine! Texas Rivers are pretty, but many of them are threatened by zealous overdevelopment! The SM River is host to several endemic endangered species, so it enjoys some special protections.
Also, because it is spring-fed, it is a constant 72F, all- year long. In the summer it’s nice and cool, but in the winter, vapor hovers over the surface of the water.
AND R, YOU KNOW YOU and D and MJ ARE WELCOME ANY TIME!!!!!!!!! You might have to sleep in a hammock, tho.
Just kidding. I’d sleep in the hammock.
I’ve always wanted to sleep in a hammock!