My son has enjoyed picking things up outside since the day he began to walk. He’d fill his arms full of sticks at the family cabin – clearing the grass of debris. My son’s hands, pockets, and stroller cups would be full of pine cones, stones – anything he’d find in his path when we would take our walks. I had to stop him from picking up garbage on a daily basis, as you can imagine. My son grew, and his awareness of litter and trash in the environment grew right along with him. I’d get questions like: “Mom, why is there trash on the street?” or “Mom, why can’t people throw that away in a garbage can?” Combining his love of picking things up with his concern for the environment was only natural. My son is 9-years old now, and he and his 7-year old sister have been celebrating Earth Day by picking up trash along our favorite walking road for four years now. Both of the kids have the day marked on their calendars. This year they had a count-down to Earth Day for two weeks before the day – you’d think it was Christmas. This story isn’t about my children picking up trash on Earth Day, it’s about a lesson they learned this year – I wish you could have seen their faces. Our family headed out on our yearly Earth Day walk at about 5pm. Both kids donned vinyl gloves and carried a tall kitchen garbage bag while my husband and I walked the dogs on their leashes. A race ensued for the first 1/2 mile of our walk – a race to bag the garbage first. Throughout the walk, several people stopped to thank the kids for cleaning up the roadside. “You’re welcome!” my kids would respond. It wasn’t until we were almost back home that a woman and her husband caught up to us as the kids’ garbage bags were slowing them down by then. The lady hurried over to the kids, walked alongside them and said “I just wanted to tell you both that what you are doing is so wonderful – it’s inspirational!” “Thank you!” my son replied. “Thanks!” my daughter chirped in. A big smile spread across the ladies face as she said “Keep doing what you’re doing” and she hurried off to catch up with her husband. Five minutes later, we saw the lady turn around to meet up with us again. “I just wanted to tell you that you both were so inspirational that I’ve decided to pick up trash on my way home.” she said as she stooped down to pick up a crushed cardboard box. “You’ve inspired me!” she said again. My daughter looked up at me with her mouth open in awe, which quickly turned into a smile. My son hobbled up to where I was walking with his extra-heavy, packed garbage bag and exclaimed “Mom, did you hear that? We inspired her to pick up garbage too!” I smiled, and we all yelled out “Thank you for helping!” The kind lady turned back, smiled, and waved with a garbage-filled hand. For the last block-and-a-half of our walk my family discussed how an act of kindness can inspire others to pay-it-forward. My son quickly realized that more trash was picked up that day than he could have picked up himself because he and his sister had inspired someone else. An important lesson was learned on Earth Day, a lesson that my kids will never forget thanks to the kind lady – an act of kindness can inspire others to pay-it-forward. Have you been inspired by an act of kindness? What do you do to make our world a more beautiful place? I’d love to read all about it. Unbound Roots has been nominated for the Hidden Gem award through the annual Bloggers Bash Awards. If you’ve enjoyed this story or others that I have written, would you mind taking a moment to vote? No personal information is collected – all you have to do is click and you’re done. You can vote HERE. Thank you so very much for your support!
kindness
It’s a Small World: Another Horse Connection
Last week I wrote about the special connection between horses and humans. That particular piece was one of the most difficult to start. How do I put a lifetime of passion and memories in one post? But, after I gathered pictures, picked out memories that meant the most to me, and chose a few of my great-grandfather’s horse stories to share, there was no stopping the words from spilling out onto the page. The connections that were found between the generations of my family and the love we have had for horses for over a hundred years was heartwarming and eye-opening at the same time. However, these connections were not the only ones discovered – another connection was uncovered this past week thanks to the following photo: In this picture a four-year old version of myself can be seen riding a pony at a friend’s birthday party. Do you see the man with the sweet cowboy hat on? He ended up coming into our lives some 30 years later. I didn’t make this connection until I dug up this picture to use in my horse story last week. Our Home My family and I moved into our current home almost five years ago now. We were thrilled to find a place that was just 20 minutes from downtown St. Paul and Minneapolis, but made us feel like we were living in the country. The lot we live on is large enough to have nice-sized perennial gardens, hold our 12 raised-bed vegetable gardens, and keep our free-range chickens happy and chatty. Four doors down from our house is a horse boarding stable, so we walk to visit our friends almost every day. And, much to our delight, we quickly found out that our next-door neighbors have ponies come to stay with them every summer. Why? It’s quite simple – our neighbors have a large lot so they have a friend’s ponies come over to keep the grass in the pasture under control throughout the summer. This friend, I’ll call Joel for privacy’s sake, lives just down the road from us, so he stops by every day to spray the ponies with fly repellent and give them treats. Naturally, my family and I flock to the ponies every summer. We feed them long grass by hand, and when the apples on our apple trees ripen in the fall, the ponies delight in the crisp, sweet treat. Two summers ago I came up with a great idea – yes, it does happen once in awhile, believe it or not. Joel One day, as Joel was over taking care of his ponies, I asked him if he would be willing to bring a pony over to our house for my daughter’s fourth birthday. My daughter has always been completely crazy about horses. She decorates her bed with stuffed horses, plasters her walls with horse pictures, and visits the horses in the neighborhood on a daily basis. Going to see the horses is like brushing teeth for her – a habit. A surprise pony ride would be a dream for her. Joel was more than willing to come and surprise my daughter, and he actually seemed just as excited as I was at this prospective event. I had a sneaking suspicion that Joel had done this before. More on this later. On my daughter’s birthday, it’s easy to say that she was in utter disbelief when a pony started walking up the driveway. I remember her screaming “IT’S BUTTONS!” She knew Buttons well since this pony spent most of the summers in our neighbor’s backyard. The smile that washed over my daughter’s face was beautiful. Quick note – Do you see those cowgirl boots with the pink trim? That girl wore those boots each and every day for two years. She only stopped wearing them because she could no longer scrunch her feet into those beloved boots. Needless to say, we have the boots in her memory box because neither mom nor daughter could part with them. Anyway, my daughter rode the pony for a good hour the day of her birthday before… …bringing her brother on a ride that was just as long. Everyone, including Joel, had smiles on their faces throughout the evening. Success all around! Last week, as I was rummaging through old photos for my horse post, I noticed a similarity between the man in the sweet cowboy hat in my old picture, and Joel. The man sure looked like Joel, but could he be? The hats they wore seemed similar. Maybe the nose too. Had we crossed paths 30-some years ago? The Connection Yesterday I was out mowing the grass in the backyard when I saw Joel pull up in the neighbor’s driveway. I jumped off the lawn tractor, ran up to the house to grab my old picture, and sprinted back down to the horse pasture. “Hi, Joel!” I yelled. He responded with “Well, hello there!” When I reached him, I said, “Joel, this may seem crazy, but is this you in this picture?” He looked and exclaimed “Well, would you look at that! That’s my hat, and my mustache.” He looked at me, pointed at the picture and asked “Is that you?” “Yes,” I replied, “I was at my friend’s birthday part, and four-years old at the time.” He smiled and said “It’s a small world! That’s Sugar you are sitting on. She was a great pony. Oh goodness, thank you so much for sharing this picture with me.” Joel and I ended up sharing horse stories for at least a half an hour. I told him about my favorite horse memories, my parent’s farm, and my great-grandfather’s stories about Rowdy, his horse. Joel told me about growing up on a farm that was located very close to where we currently live, and how his grandfather bought him his first horse when he was 15 years old. Joel named his horse Charity because he liked to share the horse with