Earth Day 2020--Taking time out for something important

I took this morning off to travel less than a mile with my wagon and garbage bags around my neighborhood. In years past, I have always wanted to take part in the annual Earth Day cleanup of trash in parks, streambeds, and public lands. Unless April 22 fell on a weekend, it wasn't easy to take the time.  This year, with my home schedule much more under my control, I was able to spend three hours outside in a nearby park, criss-crossing a streambed in underbrush where locals go to hang out and drink. A major thoroughfare borders the woods, too, and a busy corner with a stoplight provides an opportunity for folks to throw all kinds of trash out their car and truck windows.
Litter has always distressed me. Besides despoiling the landscape (Have you seen how many shopping bags the wind deposits in trees?) the toxicity of chemicals and plastics that deteriorate and drain into the watershed makes me angry.
So today was prayer and pickup day. There is so much that needs the attention of prayer: all our front line medical workers, all those suffering near death and their families, all those essential workers and those deemed so unessential that they have been let go of their jobs. Each bottle or can or piece of trash I spotted was an occasion to pray. And I'm including prayers for all those cleaning up after someone else's thoughtlessness. There will be many of us in the coming months.