To be evergreen

To be evergreen

When we don't care about the beauty of nature, some corners of the house, especially the backyard, can easily become a dumping ground. 

In fact, we can't put every single piece of debris and garbage, such as fallen branches and leaves, seashells, bones, or some other left-overs, into plastic bags and still be in accordance with the regulations of the local garbage disposal system. As a result, we can't help but to inevitably have a dumping ground in the backyard. 

Last year, I removed all the garbage piled up in one corner of the backyard to make the area neat and clean. I also dug deep into the ground to bury some of the garbage. What an unexpected joy to pass through that little path that was transformed into a new space with evergreen plants! 

This year, I took another look at the other corner of the house to find another pile of garbage. Again and again there is always a pile of garbage somewhere. 

On one Sunday morning, I took the time to remove ugly stuff from the dumping ground. I put fallen branches and leaves into the big plastic bags; there were over 10 large bags in all. 

Underneath where the pile had been, things were already decaying slowly with the help of earthworms. Hopefully, the decayed organic matter will be a good fertilizer to help the plants and flowers grow into full bloom.

After removing the garbage, I made the ground a flower bed and transplanted evergreen plants. 

As we can change a dumping ground into a flower bed or vegetable garden, so too we can change ourselves. We can transform our lives to be filled with truth and spiritual vitality. 

Pope Francis urges young people and the entire people of God to have "courage to be different" in a post-synodal apostolic exhortation, "Christus Vivit" (Christ is alive) published in 2019. Definitely, if we have the goal, strong will, faith and perseverance, we can transform and be renewed. 

"Shoe" is an about-4-minute short animated film about "a toy shoe," written and directed by Qian Shi who presented it as part of her Bachelor of Arts, Animation studies graduation film in 2008 with the background music of Trygue Nielsen. "Shoe" received the best student film award at the Bradford Animation Festival 2008 and the MX business award at Tokyo Anime Fair 2010. 

One day in 2006, Qian Shi, a Chinese person, noticed a shoe-doll while looking around the Museum of Childhood in Edinburgh. Inspired by that shoe-doll originally found in a London slum in 1905, she wrote a touching loving story between a father and a young daughter living in poverty. 

One day, thinking of a pretty doll in the mall, the girl carried her father's shoes, but she came back home still carrying the shoes. When she went to bed, her father used his shoes to make a doll for his daughter. The round flat heel became the face of the doll. 

In any living condition or situation, we can make others healthy and cheerful. In the midst of the coronavirus disaster, we keep praying, encouraging one another, and helping those people in the virus-affected zone. 

As God wants us to be peaceful, we can do good to others in the connected world. Being considerate for others with unconditional love, we can be transformed into more thoughtful and compassionate beings; just as we can improve some spaces in the garden.