Do What Matters

It isn't the destination, it is the journey that matters.

“It chuckles and has ripples of sunlight where the stream begins. It is perfect,” sighed Dorothy Thomas. She and her beau, Anthony Hodgin stared dismally at the flowing muck of sludge and litter that was the Millcreek river.

“I used to fish here when I was a kid,” Anthony turned away from the smell. The path leading here still featured Spring’s mass of yellow flowers without a name but well remembered fragrance.

“I swam here until my parents found out. I couldn’t understand why they ground me for a week until the doctor’s report came back saying I hadn’t caught anything worse than an irritating fungus that went away on its own.”

“Do you really think we can do anything about bringing it back alive?” Dorothy was hopeful. She still believed in the Wizard of Oz.

“Not if the companies polluting it have a say.” Anthony, a year older and more wise to the ways of the world, had checked things out.

There’d been a now defunct newspaper suit against what was going on. An animal rights group had threatened about the loss of an endangered species, but had had too small of a financial backing to do anything else about it.

To distract Dorothy from following her yellow brick road idea, Anthony proposed, “How about a Rocky Road ice cream cone from Delmonico’s? My treat while we figure out a better picnic spot?”

“Life is no picnic, is it?” Dorothy kicked aside old empty beer bottles and sat on a graffiti marked stump. The tears in her eyes revealed the fact that she no longer believed there was a Wizard of Oz,

There was nowhere else to sit other than in garbage mixed with weeds. Anthony leaned carefully against a half dead Weeping Willow tree. “If it will make you feel any better, I brought you here for a reason. Amalgamated is selling out to Google. The new company will be cleaning up the river to use the water in their new Artificial Intelligence Center.”

That only made Dorothy’s tears begin to flow. “Don’t you know that will likely make the river dry up? A.I. centers require vast amounts of water to keep their hardware from melting. There’s already not enough water to go around. That’s the only reason they’re buying off the city council and forcing Amalgamated to shut down.”

“What are you kids doing here? This is now private property.” The sudden appearance of workmen dressed in heavy vests and hard hats brought Alice up on her feet in alarm.

“This area isn’t posted, where’s the sign?” Anthony shot back at the man in charge. Hard laughter was the answer, as the rest of the crew carrying fencing and privacy signs arrived.

“Get lost,” said the bossy leader, “Don’t forget to spread the word.”


“Hey. Haven’t seen you around.” Anthony leaned on his rake as Alice walked into his backyard.

“This is what you’ve been doing? You haven’t been hanging around in your usual spots.”

“Do you like it?”

“Nice authentic dirty smudges on your knees and chin. I didn’t know you were into gardening. You never mentioned it.”

“Not me. This.” Anthony pointed with the end of his rake handle at how he’d transformed his garden into a wildlife sanctuary. Tall canopy trees, mid-story shrubs, and ground-level wildflowers mimic'd a natural forest edge. “Native plants attract insects who attract wild birds and animals. A whole miniature ecosystem then takes care of itself.”

“Has anyone else seen this? It’s amazing.” She took out her cellphone and began taking pictures to post online. “How much did this cost?”

“The well feeding the pond was the biggest expense. Water is life. Nothing else works if you haven’t got that. I’m recouping the cost with my new career.” Anthony offered Dorothy a seat on a moss covered log.

“You quit your big lawyer job? When the girls hear that they’ll stop fighting for your attention. How are you going to support yourself?” Dorothy watched as a fish leaped into the air after a dragon fly and a masked raccoon snatched at the fish with its paws.

“I didn’t go looking for a new career, it came looking for me. The more involved I got setting up my backyard retreat, the more contacts I made encouraging me to become a Rewilding Designer. Their referrals have me lined up for months in advance to replicate what I’m doing in other yards.”

“That’s fantastic, Anthony. You’re replacing the river with pockets of wilderness paradise!” Dorothy couldn’t resist leaning over to give him an enthusiastic hug and a kiss.

“And you? What have you been doing since we last met?” Anthony left an arm around Dorothy as they sat closer together.

“You haven’t been paying attention to my band’s Youtube music channel, or you’d know.” Dorothy flipped out her cell phone and punched up the Internet. A few finger scrolls and a new tune sang out. “It’s called River Blues. It’s gone viral. So many calls have gone into Google’s Millcreek location that they’ve promised to remove invasive thirsty plants from riverbanks, restore leaky irrigation canals for farmers and recharge underground aquifers while building their new plant.”

“What about the river? Doesn’t eighty percent of the river water pulled out get used up as steam?” Anthony knew his data.

Dorothy bowed her head. The whirlwind magic tour with her walk down her yellow brick road, hadn’t carried any happy resolution to that sad fact.

“All we can do is what matters most to us, that we find we have some control of.” She leaned up into a silent kiss before adding. “You’ve created a little bit of heaven on earth. I’d like to become a part of it.”

“Welcome home.” Anthony had found the final piece to the puzzle his wild life sanctuary needed for him to feel complete and whole while living there.