I don’t know that I had much of a plan for how I might spend my Saturday. I did plan to make waffles for breakfast as that has been both plan and action for just about every Saturday morning at our house for over twenty years. For the first time in a few months, it was warm enough that we ate our waffles while sitting on the porch. As we were enjoying our breakfast, I noticed the big shrub at the northeast corner of the house. Its upper branches were brushing against the eave and reaching up above the gutter. So, I decided that once we finished our breakfast, I’d trim that rascal back a bit.

I’m not sure exactly what sort of shrub it is but it’s quite reminiscent of winter creeper. Its branches grew nearly three feet last season. So, that’s about how far I trimmed it back for the start of this season. When I started raking up the branches from around the bush, I remembered the blanket of leaves covering the narrow strip of yard on that same corner of our property. I began raking those up into piles.

While raking, I soon noticed that the leaves were almost exclusively oak leaves. The primary significance of that fact is that we don’t have any oak trees. When I shared that observation with Randa, she said, “So, should we take these over to their yard?” Frankly, I found the thought somewhat appealing. I mentally rehearsed the scene of dumping a big bag of leaves in their yard.

Then it occurred to me that I didn’t want to go around the neighborhood trying to retrieve the leaves from our three huge elm trees.

It doesn’t usually take a lot of time to figure out that you aren’t going to get too far down that road of just desserts before you find the spoon in your own hand and a dish you’re not going to enjoy very much sitting right there in front of you. Might be good before starting on that journey of just rewards for others to remember what Jesus said about “Blessed are the merciful…”

H. Arnett
2/20/17