Beech Tree News Network

My niece, Melanie, lives in Murray, Kentucky, with her son, Dylan, and her husband, Drew.  Melanie loaned the crib that was Dylan’s to our daughter, Natalie, when Sabria was born.  It is one of those beautiful maple cribs that looks as if it were sculpted instead of constructed.  On Saturday, Natalie, Sabria, the crib and I made a trip to Murray.  Melanie and Drew have decided to foster children, and they have need of a crib once again. 

               We went first to the Curris Center on Murray State University campus—Melanie is director of International students and Drew teaches government there—where there was a craft event being held.  Melanie is one of those creative, artsy people, and is currently making leather pieces like passport covers and ipad holders.  She was set up at the show, and we wanted to go by and lend our support.  After we shopped with her, we visited other booths displaying homemade soap, scroll saw puzzles, puppets, jewelry and essential oils, to name just a few. 

               When we returned to Melanie’s area, her husband, Drew had arrived.  He is Melanie’s second husband, and Saturday was the first time we had met him.  He was very friendly and genuine, just like Melanie.  We followed Drew to their house in order to unload the crib, and he offered to show us the house.  It is one of those homes that reflects the personalities of the people who live there.  There was lots of art on the wall and bits of whimsy—a surfboard table, a metal sculpture made from bits of cast-off parts, a Union Jack-painted chest—as well as traditional cabinets and chests. 

               When it was time for us to leave, I wished him and Melanie success in their fostering endeavors.  “There’s a lot of good to be done in the world,” he said. 

               I thought about those words a lot on the way back home—the attitude of doing good.  It comes from a very different place than the attitude of combatting bad.  Combatting bad comes from a need to deflect and protect.  Doing good comes from the desire to share and give openly.  I haven’t any doubt that Melanie and Drew will be wildly successful as foster parents.

               When I got home Saturday afternoon, I texted my daughter, Nikki, to check on their most recent bunny.  Nikki and her husband, Thomas, are fostering rabbits—there is a whole world out there of which we country people know little.  In their area, near New Orleans, there is a very active animal rescue organization.  Right before Christmas, the shelter received around twenty rabbits from people who could no longer take care of them or who had lost interest in them. 

               Thomas built a rabbit hutch then he and Nikki took in a rabbit from the shelter—her name is Stardust—until someone can adopt her.  The couple already has one rabbit, Bobby, and since he has been an only bunny for a stretch of time, he is none too anxious to share his territory with the new kid.  They have to keep the two rabbits separated, and split their attention with them one at a time.   

               Nikki sent me a video of her, Thomas and Stardust playing poker.  Stardust would pick up the chips one at a time and carry them into the ante then drop them.  It was great. 

               Drew is right.  There’s a lot of good to be done in the world—on many levels.  Both couples have shown me the importance of generosity, no matter the form it takes.  Generosity speaks to the whole of creation, and brings about change no other force can.