By Florence “Flip” Ross, LuxEco Advocate
Since I live in South Florida, I have no hills, no mountains, only lots of water, which leaves me living in a very flat environment. I am not able to be inspired by lofty mountains, lilting hills, nor will you find me cavorting on the high plains singing: “The Hills are alive, with the sound of music.”
Recently I moved to a new location, and as I found my way around, I became aware that on the way to the expressway, I passed, of all things, a lovely expanse of rolling green hills. This was a new innovation, since I was so used to the flat landscape to which I had become accustomed. I assumed this lovely sight to be Indian burial mounds, or an unusual mistake of the Earth’s uprising, perhaps a dead volcano? In any event these rolling hills were an unusual sight, and a very pleasing one.
One day at work, I happened to mention that I found these hills so pleasant to look at every time I passed them, and I wondered how they had developed there in the midst of all the flatness, which looked like God had ironed the land. Everyone laughed and said: “Don’t you know what those hills are?
They are a garbage dump.” All the trash and garbage dispensed there was covered with earth and grass, and grew into those lovely hills, proving that out of bad, comes good.
Knowing that under these hills and the layers of green, green grass lies trash and garbage, does not stop my appreciation of the scenery one whit. Quite the contrary – it causes me to have great respect for something that was ugly, odoriferous, and disgusting but turned into graceful, lovely, rolling hills. THIS IS REALLY GOING GREEN.
Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we could take everything that was hurtful and ugly in our lives and, turn it all into something beautiful that gave us pleasure, rather then pain?
