Recycle

Since my mom was allergic to everything and I thought goldfish were pretty lame, I never had any pets as a kid. But now, I have WORMS!

I don't have a yard for a compost pile here, so I requested a worm composter on my wedding registry, and I bought a pound of worms. They hang out in a box in my kitchen and are pretty awesome, let me tell you. I feed them banana peels and junk mail, and the bulk of the waste slowly decreases, and in a few months I will have some top-notch, nutrient rich soil. An initially-skeptical John has to admit, it doesn't even smell.

Plus they are so wiggly and cute.

I think what they are doing is quite beautiful. I wonder whether I am up to that task of redemptive recycling. The stuff that happens, the stuff I don't like so much, the stuff I don't find useful and I'd rather just throw away or erase. Do I process it and turn it into something useful, something that can bring new growth? Or do I toss it aside, try to ignore it, let it pile up like a landfill? (Did you know that in a landfill, even biodegradable materials don't break down? They are too compressed, there is no oxygen to aid the process. And so what could have been part of the natural life cycle becomes waste forever.)

It is time to do some digging. Could the things that have caused me pain become beautiful?