Raking Leaves and World Hunger

It is fall (or autumn, for the purist) where I live. It's an especially beautiful season for those not acquainted with the temperate zone. Once a year, we experience cool nights and warm days, maturing crops and changing leaf colors. Depending on the tree and the variety, we get beautiful shades of reds, yellows, oranges, greens, browns and more. And those stunning leaves all fall down -- which brings me to the subject of this post.

Raking is required. See, if you leave the leaves -- you end up with a mess. With the coming snow, they get wet and heavy and eventually kill the grass they fall on. So, they must be picked up. While some choose the mechanical methods like leaf blowers, lawn mowers and neighbor kids, I prefer the old-fashioned way. It involves a pair of gloves, some leaf bags, a rake and a sunny afternoon.

As I was trying to get as many leaves as possible in bag #6, my mind drifted off to world hunger. That's when I realized the similarities. How could sweating on a 50 degree day in my comfortable back yard apply to one of the major challenges on this globe?

You see no matter how careful I was; no matter how well-intended I was; no matter how diligent, how patient or how energetic I was -- THERE WERE STILL LEAVES THAT DIDN'T STAY IN THE BAG. I simply could not capture every single one. And that's when it hit me. I was focused on the wrong thing. I was not concerned (or even thankful) in the least with the thousands of leaves I had bagged... but was fixated on the tens that weren't. Just like world hunger -- only the numbers are reversed.

While we might not be able to save everyone in the world from starvation, we can save a few. Let's start there. Let's help them so they can help their neighbors and so their neighbors can help someone else. There are organizations making a lasting difference in the world. One of them is Self-Help International.

It may not be a quick fix, but once those leaves are in the bag -- then we can start the process of rounding up the rest.