We are ALL litter bugs!

As I went thru my morning ritual of a fruit smoothie with spinach leaves, then a trip to the bathroom and then a shower to clean up, I stepped out of the shower and coughed a couple of times to alert my valet (my wife) that I was ready for help to towel off and apply applicants to various parts of my body.  From powders to creams, top to bottom literally.  And as we dressed this “physical me” I remarked, “There.  All ready for the day.” 

And then the reality of “impermanence” struck me.  We will have to do this all over again tomorrow.  It is never really once for life.  It is what I call “unraveling”.  We are all unraveling. And we try to hold it together with glue like food and beauty creams and underwear.  One hair-cut for life is never enough.  I still have to have toe nails and finger nails cut often.  And forensic scientists say I am spreading DNA every where I go and every step I take.  Actually, my wife says the same thing as she picks up after me.  Especially when I “help” in the kitchen. 

I apologize for this unraveling process.  Not my choice, just a reality I try to deal with.  I try to organize my litter by paying for Waste Management and sewer and water service. And I bought my dear wife a Kirby vacuum and a mop and the best washer and dryer money can buy.  So the litter is rounded up daily and disposed. But I wonder.  Where do my toe nail clippings, and DNA eventually go?  I don’t want it back.  I just wonder where it lies. 

Before my final unraveling, I want to litter my path with evidence of my love, appreciation, and gratitude for those around me.  So I have decided to hand out plastic cards that say YOU ARE SPECIAL.  I am thinking plastic PVC will last longer before that too unravels.  If I am going to litter anyway, I will litter with intent.  And may love be strewn every where I go.  

Teach Me to Love

There was a time when in my daily prayer  I asked for all the things I deemed most fair, And necessary to my life—success,  Riches, of course, and ease, and happiness;  A host of friends, a home without alloy;  A primrose path of luxury and joy,  Social distinction, and enough of fame  To leave behind a well-remembered name. Ambition ruled my life. I longed to do Great. things, that all my little world might view And whisper, "Wonderful!" ...........................................Ah, patient God, How blind we are, until Thy shepherd's rod Of tender chastening gently leads us on  To better things! Today I have but one  Petition, Lord—Teach me to love. Indeed,  It is my greatest and my only need— Teach me to love, not those who first love me, But all the world, with that rare purity  Of broad, outreaching thought which bears no trace Of earthly taint, but holds in its embrace Humanity, and only seems to see The good in all, reflected, Lord, from Thee. And teach me, Father, how to love the most Those who most stand in need of love—that host Of people who are sick and poor and bad,  Whose tired faces show their lives are sad,  Who toil along the road with footsteps slow, And hearts more heavy than the world can know— People whom others pass discreetly by,  Or fail to hear the pleading of that cry  For help, amid the tumult of the crowd;  Whose very anguish makes them cold and proud, Resentful, stubborn, bitter in their grief— I want to bring them comfort and relief,  To put my hand in theirs, and at their side Walk softly on, a faithful, fearless guide. O Saviour, thou the Christ, Truth, ever near, Help me to feel these sad ones doubly dear  Because they need so much! Help me to seek  And find that which they thought was lost; to speak  Such words of cheer that as we pass along  The wilderness shall blossom into song. Ah, Love divine, how empty was that prayer Of other days! That which was once so fair— Those flimsy baubles which the world calls joys  Are nothing to me now but broken toys,  Outlived, outgrown. I thank Thee that I know  Those much-desired dreams of long ago,  Like butterflies, have had their summer's day Of brief enchantment and have gone. I pray For better things.  Thou knowest, God above, My one desire now—Teach me to love.

 Louise Knight Wheatly Cook