Acts of Love - Cleaning

What would happen if, every time you took your family to a public park, you spent the first five minutes of your time there racing to see who could pick up the most trash?

What would your kids, and other people observing, learn from this game?

How would you feel the first time you went to a favorite park and couldn't find a single piece of trash to pick up?

When I was a kid...heck, up until I had a kid, I had no idea why I should clean up a mess I didn't make. Especially if no one asked, especially if no one would know I'd done it. What was the point of doing work without being paid, or at least recognized for it?

But since I gave birth, I've had to clean up after a little person who has no idea how to wipe his butt, and has yet to master the concept that bodily fluids are NOT suitable for use as paint. He can't clean his vomit out of the carpet, or do his laundry, clean his dishes...he still thinks it's more fun to dump all his toys on the floor and scatter them throughout the house than to put them away.

I don't resent him, or feel like I'm being cheated because I'm cleaning up his mess without pay or praise. (Okay, I may resent society a bit for not valuing the work I do in raising him, but that's a whole other post...)

It's funny how having a kid puts your whole world into perspective and teaches you things about yourself you never would have thought about otherwise.

Now I understand that cleaning is an act of love. When I pick up trash at the beach, I'm performing an act of love for myself, for my son, for all the people and creatures who visit the beach, for Mother Earth.

I love it when my son emulates me by throwing cigarette butts in the trash bucket. It reminds me that he is observing and internalizing every thing I say and do, and that so far, I'm doing good. <3