PORCH PONDERINGS

Adopt a Highway

PROMPT May 16th

What do you do to make the world a better place?

Today my church cleaned a section of highway. You’ve seen the signs. “This mile adopted by XYZ”. This is the 24th year of doing this good deed. We make it an event. Clean the side of the road for the assigned mile, then adjourn to a member’s home for a meal. Today we also had a business meeting for the church.

So in our own little way we helped keep the environment clean. I write a little article about the day for our state church newsletter. There is always a description of what we found. This year’s finds included a yellow bucket which helped hold more trash, a snake that even when run over in the road still tried to attack, black and white baby pictures that the finder checked to make sure they weren’t his. He claims he has never seen any baby pictures of himself. They also found unopened mail, an intact turn-signal assembly, and a magnetic sign that we stuck to the guard rail.

Waneta’s home sits a ways off the highway in the middle of nowhere. As you drive back, you pass some cow pastures. Today there were horses grazing. The hills are green now with the warmer weather and the rain we’ve been getting. Her home has a big crab apple tree with bird feeders. The birds were flocking to it. There were red crossbills, sparrows, magpies, chickadees. She also has started her garden. It is an amazing place to sit and be still, enjoy nature.

We had a nice lunch, a good meeting, and sent on our way after a job well done with plants from her greenhouse.

You should try to improve where you live. Even if you only go out and pick up trash.