Provident Nightmares--EeeK Moments

     Eeek! It was one of those Nighmare on Elm Street moments. I remember the first time I felt this way. It was when one of Blanding’s icons passed away, and the family photo collection was divided up, and then put in a garage. Shortly thereafter these irreplaceable photos were severely water damaged. My heart twisted in agony!

     Again I cringed when a dear elderly grandmother in our neighborhood died, and I learned that boxes of her historic photos were thrown out in the trash. Before such historic treasures are trashed, families should consider donating the collection to the San Juan Historical Society.  They can at least archive the collection keeping it intact, safe and secure. Such a decision conserves history for posterity & community.  

 

hese are pages from my grandmother's album

which I scanned about 2004.  Then I used 

Photoshop and dissected then into individual

photos, filing them by categories. My Dad is in 

eachof these photos.  I really treasure them.

     If you don't want to do that, then start organizing and digitizing your photos now. You don't have to store all of your slides, photos, mementos.  Take photos of them, or scan then, then identify them by year, and organize them all on your computer, so you can find them when you write your history some day.  Or teach your teen ager how to do it.

     This week’s Eeek! Moment came when I learned a neighbor’s well-meaning (but not provident) family had carted off all her canning jars to the dump. I couldn’t help but think of all the people who could have benefited from their use. This year promises to be a “summer of plenty” and canning is a way to conserve its abundance. The last jars I got were from Jacquie Moses’ curbside last summer!   Many of my favorite “trash to treasure finds” I discovered in someone else’s garbage. I know it’s embarrassing to my walking partners, and probably my children as well, but if something can be used, whether a high chair, an ironing board, lawn decoration, or canning bottles, I have no qualms about asking if I can have it. Your trash may likewise, be another’s treasure. Think outside the box (‘er . . .trash can) and share.

      For the past 4 years as I’ve tried to simplify and declutter my life, I have found it a simple matter to set out on our corner things we don’t need, in hopes that someone else may find a use for them. I am always happy when they’re gone by the next day, and hope they find a “new purpose under heaven.” My heroine in this behavioral change has been the aforementioned Jacquie, a woman who practices real conservation. She has a wealth of provident pointers, if you’re ready to change.

     Enough on recycling…let’s get our hands dirty. It’s time to start gardening in Blanding. May 15 is typically the last killing frost, so unless you’re a gambler and already have your seeds in, it’s time to prepare your soil and plant.

     Nothing advertisers can promise can match home-grown fresh tomatoes, corn, beans, & peaches. They are superior in flavor, nutrition and therapy. Ada Rigby is Blanding’s guru gardener. She told me many years ago that her father recommended working in dirt for mental, emotion, and physical therapy. She followed his advice and learned “bushels” full of information the past 60 years, while she and Truman produced some of the best and most varied gardens in town.

There is something wonderful about working with plants and having quiet time to ponder and plan while pulling weeds. My first missionary companion was a metaphor queen, a true transcendentalist. She found lessons of life in nature, whether in a cracked sidewalk, or a faded bloom. While pulling mallow I, too learned that weeds not plucked young, grown deeply and may require a crowbar to eradicate. Like addictions and sin, old roots die hard.

    Gardening helps to counteract Mammon’s Malaise which William Wordsworth described 200 years ago:

The world is too much with us; late and soon,

Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers;

Little we see in Nature that is ours;

We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!

I memorized this in college, but have spent the past 40 years trying to practice it-- a lesson that is easily practiced while gardening.