Many Hands

I love all the trees in our yard and small town until a big storm blows through, and I’m left with sticks and branches to clean up. Our village administration helps with branch and sticks removal. We typically pile the sticks in an out-of-the-way spot in our yard near the curb, and they are ground up and taken away. As I’ve mentioned before, our beloved town park also has lots of gorgeous trees, and a recent storm left a lot of large branches and sticks littering the walkways and open spaces.

I wondered about the park. Whose responsibility was it to pick up the sticks and branches there? As the dogs and I meandered through, I started noticing the little stick piles near the curb throughout the park. Someone was picking up sticks, probably as they walked the concrete paths.  Wait a minute, I thought to myself. I could pick up sticks while I’m walking the dogs, too. So that’s what we did: circling back, dragging downed branches to the curb, putting sticks in piles started by others. We didn’t pick up everything, but over the course of several walks, we cleaned up a number of branches, and other people, whom I never saw, helped, too.

When our children were small and it was time to clean up the toys that were strewn far and wide throughout the house, I remember saying, “Many hands make light work.” On our own, some jobs seem overwhelming, some problems seem more than we could handle. But everyone can do something, no matter how small. Many hands, pitching in together, can make even the biggest messes manageable.