Saturday, August 16, 2008

Garbage Of All Sorts.........

One day I hopped in a taxi and we took off for the airport. We were driving in the right lane when suddenly a black car jumped out of a parking space right in front of us. My taxi driver slammed on his brakes, skidded, and missed the other car by just inches! The driver of the other car whipped his head around and started yelling at us. My taxi driver just smiled and waved at the guy. And I mean, he was really friendly.

So I asked, 'Why did you just do that? This guy almost ruined your car and sent us to the hospital!'

This is when my taxi driver taught me what I now call, 'The Law of the Garbage Truck.'He explained that many people are like garbage trucks. They run around full of garbage, full of frustration, full of anger, and full of disappointment. As their garbage piles up, they need a place to dump it and sometimes they'll dump it on you. Don't take it personally. Just smile, wave, wish them well, and move on. Don't take their garbage and spread it to other people at work, at home, or on the streets.The bottom line is that successful people do not let garbage trucks take over their day.
~Copyright 2007 David J. Pollay

Life's too short to wake up in the morning with regrets, so...Love the people who treat you right. Be kind to the ones who don't.

I am sure that you have heard the saying "One person's garbage is another person's treasure." I send a huge thank you to Juli @ "Barefoot Gypsy Blog" for introducing me to Free cycling probably without even knowing that she was doing that. She had made mention of free cycling and since this was a new term to me I googled it to see what it was. I was thrilled at the possibilities that this program presents. Mainly it is a way to keep items that still have some use to them, but are no longer needed or wanted, out of the landfills by offering it free to who ever might need or want it. You can post wanted items as well. I hit the jackpot, because in our area there are four free cycling groups within equal distance to us. If you think you might be interested in this then you need to checkout "Free cycling". Just type your area (town and state) into the box and click 'GO' and a whole new world will be opened to you. The same day that I signed up we offered a wood stove and within 2 hours it was loaded on the back of a pick~up truck and gone. I couldn't get over the response we had. I would say at least 35 people e-mailed about it. I was wishing we had more wood stoves so no one would be disappointed. If you were wanting to do something green for the planet and not sure what you could do that would make a difference...... This is it.

Have a blessed, garbage~free day!


14 comments:

Lib said...

Hi Jo,
Oh what a BEAUTIFUL Post! If everyone would take it to heart what a better world we would have!
You're so uplifting.Thanks!:o)
Hope ya'll have a great wk.end!
Blessins',Lib

Mike Golch said...

Good Idea of not accepting some one garbage.
Just poped to say Hi, I hope that you are haveing a great day!Mike G said that!(It's an A.A.thing of Mine) HUGS and GOD's Blessings.

Diane@Diane's Place said...

I'm a long time member of FreeCycle, and Jessica joined a while back. Jessica has given away quite a few things, and gotten some really nice and needed things too.

Hope your weekend is blessed, Jo. :o)

Love and hugs,

Diane

farmlady said...

Where do you find these inspirational stories? This one is wonderful. Very appropriate to a lot of people today.

Free Cycling is a great idea. Don't believe we have it here in Calif. but I'll check. We do have Craigs List which is an on line place to sell things but not "freebies".

Betty said...

What a beautiful post, Jo. I loved the story about the cab driver. That is a good way to look at how and why someone may be unkind to you and how you should treat them in return.

Thanks for the hint about free cycling. I'll check it out.

Linds said...

Freecycle is global, by the way - we have it here in the UK, and so does my daughter in NZ and it is all over Europe too. It is wonderful. Wonderful!

The garbage truck story is great, Jo. True too. More to remember and learn.

Aisha said...

This made me smile! I easily get irritated sometimes by people who do stupid stuff but I never thought about just letting it pass or like what the driver did, smiled and wave. Thank you for sharing!

Kate said...

Jo, I am always uplifted by your blog, you have a lovely way with words and talk a lot of sense. I find it always 'moving' to call by.

Thanks for this post it was 'just' what I needed. Love Kate x.

Edie Marie's Attic said...

Thanks Jo! We all need to hear that so we don't take it personally. I will use that analogy with other people that can't let go of other people's rage. Your taxi driver was a very wise person. Thanks, you're great!
Hugs, Sherry

Mary said...

Jo,

I have read the story about the taxi driver before. What a great attitude. If everyone would adopt it, the world would be a better place.

Free cycling has been practiced here for years. If we don't want something or no longer use it, we sit it at the curb and put a sign on it "Free." It is usually gone within a few minutes.

Take care and have a great week.
Blessings,
Mary

Shelley said...

Wonderful post! Puts things that irritate us in the proper perspective.

I love FreeCycle. We have a very active group here where I live. I've gotten some very nice things from it over the past year. And its such a great idea.

Blessings!

Anonymous said...

Thanks for posting this great story! My name is Chris, and I work with David J. Pollay, the author of The Law of the Garbage Truck™ - Beware of Garbage Trucks™! I just wanted to stop by and let you know that you can read the original story on David’s blog davidjpollay.typepad.com. I know he’d love to have you stop by!

Also check out the video of people in New York City taking the No Garbage Trucks!™ Pledge: bewareofgarbagetrucks.com. It’s pretty cool.

Thanks again!

Chris

chris@bewareofgarbagetrucks.com

Tina Coruth said...

Jo,

This is a wonderful post and so true. This is very good advice. Thank you for posting this!

hugs,
Tina

The Old Man and His Dog said...

I've been freecycling for over 3 years now. When my ex-wife left me and the kids we had to move and needed some stuff. Then I furnished an apartment or two with freecycled stuff and passed it on to other freecyclers when I didn't need it anymore. We still freecycle at least once a month we offer up something.