Several days ago I hired my 16 year old next door neighbour to help me shred some branches from recent pruning. We were busy for two hours after school feeding the spruce branches into the mouth of a cantankerous tree shredder. The hungry, noisy beast devoured large branches through its gaping maw. In the end we were left with a shredded pile of rich mulch and ground cover.
As we wiped the sweat from our brows, the lad felt in his sweatshirt pocket for his iPod; it was gone. He must have dropped it in the bustle of feeding me the branches. We looked for a time in the midst of the carnage but there was no trace. The next day I looked again as I did a final cleanup. You see the boy lives in a rented house next door. His family struggles to keep afloat. That night my wife and I realized what we needed to do. We would provide him with the money to buy another iPod.
All of us have a shredded pile of failures and disappointments. But out of that pile comes compost for future growth. Are we stronger as we face the future? Are we sensitive to those who might need a little help?
