Good Karma for the Bag Lady

We are having a completely abnormal weather day in El Paso. Wrapping up a June filled with post-hundred degree days, it is almost noon with a pleasant seventy-eight cool ones (degrees, not beers).
It’s Sunday, a day for worship, so a 3 mile walk to the post office was set aside for my God-time. Nice weather, beautiful views, tunes on the iPod….goods of creation for which I am grateful.
Walking through the arroyo, Sinead O’Connor’s If You Had A Vineyard from her CD Theology was streaming into my head…what a great song… lifted from the book of Isaiah, but representative of modern-day Israel and Palestine. It moves my soul. Anyway, I guess it made me really look around me and of course, this area looks a bit West Bankesque. And I saw all this trash the wind had blown into our Vineyard, the Vineyard we have been given.
And I thought maybe as an act of contrition I should pick some of it up.
Instantly I was provided what I needed. There before me was --- no, not a ram --- a trash bag caught in the bushes! It came from the land of Walmart and I took it as a sign that I was on the right track. I began to gather trash.
Unanticipated perk: I got the best workout ever! And it felt GOOD. I was using my body, caring for my world and inadvertently, loving my neighbors. And it wasn’t part of a thing – you know, a church workday or a boy scout merit badge project. It was just something I did. I doubt anyone even noticed me as I filled the bag after bag that conveniently blew into my pathway.
By the time I got to the post office I had yes sir, yes sir, three bags full of the refuse of humanity which I promptly deposited in government-issue trash cans. And after dropping my mail in the appropriate slot, I walked out to the parking lot to see my work was not finished.
So I continued.
Next unanticipated perk: I got a reward….a tangible one! A 41 cent postage stamp someone left in the little booklet he or she had tossed down. Ha! A 41 cent stamp with a purple heart medal on it! That’s a sweet surprise….kinda like mother earth sending out a little karmic love.
Thanks, mom!