A simple act of kindness and so much more...

As we have established, I am new here.

The site my trailer sits on has not been lived on in five years. The man that lived here before me was a gardener of some kind so there are many fruit trees, vines, and bushes that have not been tended to. I have been doing a lot of work in my little outdoor space.

My son, Joshua, and I found a ton of rocks that all matched and we created a small rock wall together. My plan was to fill in behind the wall with dirt and plant some flowers. I got ahead of myself and purchased flowers before the bed was finished. That is just how I do things. I got my eyes on pretty flowers and I had to have them. My justification, “What if they were gone when I finished preparing the bed?”

I have a neighbor who is helpful beyond measure. Her joy is to go from site to site assessing and filling needs. Joshua and I like her a great deal. She loves to garden and it did not take her long to see that I needed dirt.

She offered me a bucket of chicken poo.

I should have said no right there, but I have seen many beautiful flowers growing in the yards around the park. I was already told their secret ingredient – you guessed it! She brought me the bucket of poo and told me to fill it with water, keep it full, and soak it for a week so no seeds will grow when it is in my flowerbed.

I was quickly out of my league with this gardening adventure. In my family of origin we cannot handle smells. I am not going to go into any detail here except to say that things were getting extreme. One of my new friends with beautiful flowers rescued me from my latest gardening project. She borrowed a truck, hauled the bucket out of the back of my lot, and her poor husband dumped it in her garden.

Again, these people do not know me. I have done nothing for them in any way. Yet they are willing to implant themselves into my life. She handled the dirtiest, smelliest part of my life without hesitation…just because I needed it. Once again, I am blown away by the genuine kindness of my new friends.

There is a lot for me to learn here. I hope and pray I am paying attention and am able to keep these lessons in my heart.

I don’t want to walk away from this place unchanged.

Posts from the Trailer Park ~ Catherine