Leave It

Sometimes my spa water ingredients, having imparted their essence for three days running, still have a glow about them when their intended purpose has passed. The leftover water they’ve splashed about in, freely frolicking while adding color and health giving benefits is to be used on the potted kumquat tree in my garden.

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Their essence is imparted into the water they’re placed in . . .

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I’m big on this. And am very much aware of the impact we make on the environment around us. Here’s what I mean— but first an example. As a Girl Scout back in the day our leaders had us carefully prepare for every aspect of an upcoming camp-out. Down to the tinfoil for the Smore‘s we would make to the tin cup we would pack in our individual mess kits. At the end of our 48 hours of roughing it and learning outdoor skills such as knot tying (never to be used again in real life of course but it earned us a badge) it would be time to break camp and hike back down the hill to our cheerleading and clarinet lesson filled lives. But before we could head out it was drilled into us by our leaders that we must leave the campsite better than we found it. If previous groups of campers had left a scrap of any foreign material of any size whatsoever it was on us to remove the trace. “Leave it better than you found it” was the mantra.

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So do you? Do you pass through a place leaving behind a fragrant reminder that someone special has been there? Is the environment you left behind better than you found it because of you? It honestly doesn’t take much, even if your purpose or your mission is to clean up the bits and scraps that someone else had left behind. Perhaps more work, more stringent effort is required of you based on the previous residents or occupants in that space. Are you up for it? The fragrant rose does not choose who to impart it’s intoxicating aroma to and does not withhold from those she deems unworthy. She full on blossoms and shares her fragrance with whomsoever may cross her path.

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Do that. Be a rose in your environment and why not? There are enough skunks out there more than willing to leave their mark without so much as a care. Don’t view it as a mandatory campground cleanup but as an opportunity for an impartation of essence, fragrance, and purification of the air.

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Leave it better . . . than you found it.

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