Thursday Thrills

"Work"

Thursday morning found the ASB 2011 troupe in the Chickasaw Tennessee State Park. Here we met the sole park ranger responsible for clean up and security for the entire park. The amount of thanks we received before we had even done any work was incredible. The Snowbird Cherokee Women's Society had sent literally an entire truck full of baked goods, drinks, and snacks. We were given reusable shopping bags, pens, keychains, flashlights, and hand sanitizer packs that read, "Keep Monroe County Beautiful". The ranger explained to us just how helpful the Alternative Break groups have been in helping to make that happen. When the groups started coming, the park was filled with insurmountable amounts of trash. Each year, the amount of trash being found has gone done incrementally. The cleaner the park becomes the cleaner people want to keep it!

We collected unbelievable amounts of trash. Most of it of the expected variety-- cans, bottles, food containers, etc. Some of us, however, were lucky enough to find some trash "treasures" (and to those brave souls who picked it up and dispensed of it, we salute you). Collectively we picked up enough trash to fill the back of a semi-truck!

"Play"

By the middle of the afternoon, the sun graced us with its presence. It was a lovely seventy-five degrees. The water glittered and shone as we approached the Great Rope Swing. After some timidity, most of the group climbed the tree trunk, grabbed the rope, and swung out up to fifteen in the air before plunking into the very cold water below.

After another great dinner, we welcomed a guest speaker, a Cherokee woman who was a good friend of Ed and Arleen. She told us so many wonderful Cherokee stories and also shared more details of just how tragic the Trail of Tears was. Here is my summarized version of one of my favorite lessons she shared with us:

One day, a grandfather was talking with his grandson. "Grandson, I have a battle going on inside my heart."
The grandson became very concerned and asked his grandfather if he was sick.
So the grandfather explained further, "Inside my heart there are two wolves. One wolf brings me anger, sadness, weakness, despair, and violence. The other wolf he battles brings me joy, peace, delight, courage and happiness."
So then the grandson asked his grandfather, "Grandfather, which wolf is winning?"
The grandfather smiled and looked at his grandson, "The one I choose to feed."

This story resonated so deeply with me because it encompassed a huge reason for why our trip had been so meaningful. We had each chosen to feed the good wolf inside of us. That goodness had spread and was feeding that good wolf in every other person we met and was being given back to each one of us tenfold. That bad wolf didn't have a chance.