Clean-up Along the Trail

A few days ago John asked me if I could help out Saturday morning.  Seems there was to be a trail clean-up and he wanted me to help keep an eye on things.

Good enough, I thought.  Yep, I'll be there, I told him.

But I don't have an alarm.  And this new Ubuntu has the clock set an hour ahead and I can't seem to figure out how to get it set to CST.

So I go to bed last night thinking, well, just gonna have to check the computer when I wake up.  And the chill of the ground seeps up enough at night to awaken me several times.

Here's what I did: Put the netbook within easy reach and drifted of to la-la land.  Woke several times.  The last time it said 7-something, so I realized it was really 6-something and that I had plenty of time.  So did my usual pack-up, and made my way past the yelping dogs to McDonald's.  Got a cuppa joe and Vannessa sez, It's 7:45.

Yeah?  Not 6:45????


OMG, supposed to be there at 8, so it's lid the coffee and jump on the bike and get my okole up to LIFT CAFE.

But the timing was fine. 

LIFT CAFE provided coffee and gift card prizes to the volunteers over at the trail head, and I just sort of wandered around and talked to people.

Great guy named Dale was overseeing the show, and it was really good to chat with him.  Very compassionate individual, excellent people skills.

And sometime latter the volunteers began to straggle back laden with bags stuffed with rubbish.  One lady came pushing a grocery cart she'd found.  A square of carpet insulation all folded up in the bottom.

And the kids?  They were right in there, doing their part.

It's a good thing to expose kids to volunteer service.  They learn to connect.  When you've cleaned a trail you're not likely to litter it.  And you're waaay more likely to pick up after someone else.

I suppose it's because you've built some kind of relationship.  You've picked up the rubbish and the trail rewards you by looking so nice, lovely, and beautiful.

So yesterday was my 65th birthday, right?  So John ends up giving me a $10 gift card to LIFT CAFE and twenty for my time.  Awwwww, dammit!  I wasn't doing it for the money, but...you know how hard it is to turn down cash when you're out on the streets trying to create some magick?  Hard, mon.

So I accepted the gifts of Aloha.

See the kind of guy John is? I'll post his picture soon.

And Jamie?  Jamie and John are together, and a picture-perfect couple they are.  Both are physically blessed.  Translation: magazine cover material.

But more than that, for whatever reason, the Spirit of Aloha (which I call "the Dancer") seems to flow, move through them.

And I also know that it's impossible to do good without good coming back to you in some form or another.  And the magick couldn't happen to a finer couple.

Which leads me to my next post:  Kris, the bicycle mechanic.

Peace, aloha, magick,

Elijah

P.S.  In the afternoon, I rode back over to the grocery cart of rubbish.  The carpet underlayment was still there, so I unfolded it and cut out a piece long and wide enough for me to sleep on.  That should take care of the ground chill.

See how the Dancer works?