A Seed Was Planted

You may have heard of Jadav Payeng, the man who single handedly planted a forest on an island in India. It took him 40 years of dedication, but he changed the once barren island into a thriving forest. The island was covered in sand and not even grass grew there, but that didn’t stop him from his vision. How many people do you know with that kind of determination? That kind of selflessness? Could you dedicate even 10 years to a selfless indever? How about 5 or even just one little year to do something for others?

I remember a story about a man walking on the beach and the tide is receding and he sees many sand dollars still on the sand. Knowing that they will die out of the water for too long, he started to put some back in the water. He looked ahead and saw hundreds upon hundreds of them. Overwhelmed by how many he saw, he gave up and continued his walk. A little ways further he saw a young boy picking up the sand dollars and putting them into water. He said to the boy, why are you working so hard? Don't you see there are just far too many, what difference can it make if you are only able to save but a few? The boy said, it makes a difference to the ones I save. The story ended there, but I always add in my mind, so the man began to help save those he could. But we do learn much from this little boy. Even little acts, make a difference. Who would you have been in this story? The man, who saw how big the challenge was, so he gave up? Or would you have been the boy, who’s heart understood that he couldn’t save them all, but to those he could save it did make a difference?

Doing acts of kindness is like planting an unknown seed. You may never see how beautiful the flower, how magnificent the tree or how tasty the carrot was, but you trusted that when you did a kindness to another, something beautiful would grow. I love to plant seeds for this reason. I know for every seed I plant, there is the chance for the magnificent tree to grow, or maybe only a carrot. Sometimes the seed doesn’t grow, but the joy that one receives for every seed planted stays regardless. For we are never meant to witness just what it may become.

When I think of “good deeds” I think of people like Julia Butterfly, who lived in a Redwood tree for 738 days to try to stop an area of old growth redwood trees from being clear cut. I also think of the many volunteers who do things like help dig water wells for those without water, or the all volunteer search and rescue team that found me after 28 hours of being lost in the cold and non stop rain. Should I share that story?

Well here I go. I haven’t really talked about it. It was in October and I was out with a group mushroom hunting. The funny part is, I’m not much of a mushroom person, but hunting for an elusive plant out in the forest was something I will always be up for. Anyway, it was around 11:00 am and I had gone down a little path to find mushrooms here and there. I didn't realize I had gone far from the little dirt road that led to my car. Once I realized I could no longer see where the road was, I started to go back. But this beautiful dense forest was not going to let me go so easily. After wandering for hours and yelling for help every 10-15 minutes so I wouldn’t lose my voice in case I would need it to respond later. After hours of endless wondering and only going in circles and ending up at the same tree over and over, I knew I needed to find shelter. As beautiful as the area was with the tree that I kept coming upon, there was no place to make a shelter there, so I had to move on.

At this point the sole of one of my boots was lost, cheap Ugg like boots. I had tweek my left ankle and needed to find something fast. I knew to stay calm, as one of the lessons from all the survival shows my son would have me watch was lose your head, lose your life. I sang songs and talked to myself about life and what I was doing. I finally found a log decaying and dug my way under it. It was not the coseyest, but it would be dark soon and I needed to get warm. I packed as much mud as I could around me to keep me warm. Next I knew not to sleep. I need to keep moving to keep warm. I later found out it dropped down to 38 that night. Once the light came up I was expecting a rescue dog to come licking me in my face. But that didn’t happen. After a bit I got out to try to get out somehow, but I could hardly walk at this point. I even lost the log I had called home for several hours. I first found a log, but it couldn’t keep the rain off me much as it was too high off the ground. The log I had dug my way under was very tight and the reason I could hardly walk. I looked around some more and found baby bears log, as it was just right. I was able to get under easley and there was lots of bark and moss to pack around me. Within an hour I was nice and warm, almost. At least warmer than I had been. As the day continued, I was realizing that I may not be found this day either. I had no idea what time it was as I didn’t have my phone or a watch. I was not at all prepaid to be lost in the woods.

28 hours after I was lost I heard a voice calling out Hello. I quickly answered back. The funny part of this story is they, the two men who found me asked, are you Connie? My thought was, would that matter? I was in the middle of nowhere. But ever so excited to have been found. They were the kindest people ever. They were so excited to have been the ones to have found me, as they had both been on many search and rescues, but were never the ones to find the person. After they got my set clothes off and some dry ones on, more of the rescue team showed up. It was at this time it was obvious just where I was. They had all heard of this spot, where sound gets trapped. They had radio contact with the teams as they arrived, but you couldn’t hear them unless you could see them, or at least a step before. We heard the dogs bell and looked right away. By the time we looked, the dog was in view. It was truly amazing that they found me as that area was marked off the night before as being checked. They had been looking all night for me. They didn’t even know me. Early on even other people who had heard what had happened showed up to help look. It really touched me deeply. These guys will forever be in my heart as my heroes.

As I write this and think of all the ways people show the kinder side of themselves, I get a warm fuzzy feeling inside. With so much hate and separatism in this world right now, taking a break from thinking about those kinds of people and putting my focus on the good ones. Those worth our attention. Who do you think of when you think of heroes?