Without a doubt the thing that causes me the most exasperation in life is litter. Why? It is because it is the thing in life that is unnecessary and avoidable. Wherever I have gone in the world, not matter how remote, there is always a fag end, a plastic bottle or a sweet wrapper to not only spoil the places of beauty I have visited, but result in pollution and damage to wildlife. I remember reading on a beach in Western Australia that something as little as 10 plastic bags can kill a whale by obstructing its gutand there are over a million plastic bags floating in the oceans at anyone time.
And it is me, or does the UK appear to have more litter on the streets, parks, woods and beaches now than only a couple of years ago? I know there are places in the world where litter collection and recycling is difficult, but not in the UK. The problem appears to be people's lack of wanting to use litter bins. Most of the litter I see on runs and walks is "toss-able" ie tossed out of a car window, from a bicycle, from the hands of a walker. You know the litter I mean, beer cans, fag ends, crisp packets, plastic water bottles and more.
What does this have to do with Heartfelt Ceremonies and Compassionate Support? Or am I just griping about pet hates?
I love my planet and I respect it, doing all I can (although I am sure I can do
more) to preserve its beauty and leave it as a legacy to my children and their
children, taking the long view that I am just a short term visitor to this world
and that I must not abuse it. We see a world in daily environmental crisis, with disasters being predicted on a massive scale. Even without the disasters that are forecast and the loss of life that will result, we see filth and waste everywhere. Those that watched on TV Sports Relief the families picking through waste from a huge rubbish dump in Bangladesh will consider how awful an existence some people face, living from the filthy rubbish of others. These were not ingenious schemes to use recycling to to prevent future waste, this was witnessing a living hell for families with nothing, trying to stay alive by finding enough scrap to sell and even forced to eat discarded food from a landfill rubbish tip!
So this is my compassionate support bit. Like many my donations to Sports Relief are made and I hope if only one person less has to ensure that hell, then it was a donation well made. But there is further compassion, what can I do in my homeland? I can gripe and moan or say the local council should do more to prevent this awful littering. But this is not the solution, nor is shaming people to stop littering.
The heartfelt bit is the desire to stop and pick up the rubbish of others, loving
and kindly and without judgment. To just use a trip a week, perhaps a journey or walk or run with the aim of collecting as much "toss-able rubbish" as one
carrier bag will hold. I did this on a run on a country trial-way and filled a
bag in 30 minutes and just over 3 miles. It was simple and even enjoyable.
Better still people watched me do it, some may be inspired to do the same,
because of their heartfelt wish to live in as lovely a place as me and for it to
be clean and litter free. And there were no shortage of empty rubbish bins for
me to put the litter in, so I did not even need to take it home with me. What
about you,would you be heartfelt and inspired, compassionate towards our
beautiful planet?
Please enjoy April and have many loving experiences with the litter you
find.
And it is me, or does the UK appear to have more litter on the streets, parks, woods and beaches now than only a couple of years ago? I know there are places in the world where litter collection and recycling is difficult, but not in the UK. The problem appears to be people's lack of wanting to use litter bins. Most of the litter I see on runs and walks is "toss-able" ie tossed out of a car window, from a bicycle, from the hands of a walker. You know the litter I mean, beer cans, fag ends, crisp packets, plastic water bottles and more.
What does this have to do with Heartfelt Ceremonies and Compassionate Support? Or am I just griping about pet hates?
I love my planet and I respect it, doing all I can (although I am sure I can do
more) to preserve its beauty and leave it as a legacy to my children and their
children, taking the long view that I am just a short term visitor to this world
and that I must not abuse it. We see a world in daily environmental crisis, with disasters being predicted on a massive scale. Even without the disasters that are forecast and the loss of life that will result, we see filth and waste everywhere. Those that watched on TV Sports Relief the families picking through waste from a huge rubbish dump in Bangladesh will consider how awful an existence some people face, living from the filthy rubbish of others. These were not ingenious schemes to use recycling to to prevent future waste, this was witnessing a living hell for families with nothing, trying to stay alive by finding enough scrap to sell and even forced to eat discarded food from a landfill rubbish tip!
So this is my compassionate support bit. Like many my donations to Sports Relief are made and I hope if only one person less has to ensure that hell, then it was a donation well made. But there is further compassion, what can I do in my homeland? I can gripe and moan or say the local council should do more to prevent this awful littering. But this is not the solution, nor is shaming people to stop littering.
The heartfelt bit is the desire to stop and pick up the rubbish of others, loving
and kindly and without judgment. To just use a trip a week, perhaps a journey or walk or run with the aim of collecting as much "toss-able rubbish" as one
carrier bag will hold. I did this on a run on a country trial-way and filled a
bag in 30 minutes and just over 3 miles. It was simple and even enjoyable.
Better still people watched me do it, some may be inspired to do the same,
because of their heartfelt wish to live in as lovely a place as me and for it to
be clean and litter free. And there were no shortage of empty rubbish bins for
me to put the litter in, so I did not even need to take it home with me. What
about you,would you be heartfelt and inspired, compassionate towards our
beautiful planet?
Please enjoy April and have many loving experiences with the litter you
find.
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