Filling Holes

Tractor marks on the side of the road

Filling Holes

Driving on a road never allows one to really see a traveled road or it’s sides.  So, there are many things we don’t often see any more.  That would be the case on my most traveled road if I didn’t walk on it a couple of times every day.  Because of my walks, I know the asphalt on my street and the sides of my road in detail.

When on one of my early morning walks, not more than two weeks ago, I saw my friend Marv Shafer out in front of his house working with his tractor.  The large metal scoop on the tractor’s front was raised high in the air so it didn’t obstruct his view as he mowed the tall spring grass that had consumed the horse trail surrounding our neighborhood.  It was a damp morning and I could smell the sweet scent of cut grass wafting all around my dogs and me as we passed.

Then, when the day’s events and sun had passed into history, I walked along the same road.  When I came to the front of Marv’s house again I recognized the beautifully sculpted trail grass.  But, there was also one other change new to my view, a small gash in a mound of dirt across the street.

I looked at the fresh cut dirt and noticed the scrapes making progressive grooves toward the gouged earth.  I could tell that the tractor’s scoop, once loftily displayed, had been lowered at that point.  It made me wonder.  What did Marv do with that shovel full of dirt?  My eyes darted and my mind wandered unconsciously seeking an answer.

That answer didn’t come until the next morning.  Merlin, our fluffy Welsh Corgi, stretched his long body forward while holding his haunches high in the air.  It was his signal that he was ready to have his leash clipped to his harness for walking.  There was a click of metal on metal.  He was ready.

Cricket heard the click and took a step toward me.  That was her ready signal.  I pulled the length of her leash and heard a second click.  We, all three, walked out into the cool morning across the grass and to the ribbon of asphalt that would once again lead us past the front of Marv’s home.

We walked up.  We walked back toward our home.  My mind was still seeking the dirt that had been scooped up and was rewarded when we were almost exactly opposite the gashed mound on the other side of the street.

There had been a small hole in the shoulder of the road.  I had noticed it many times. But, since we had been having rain quite often over the past few days I had taken active note of the water rushing into it.  I remembered thinking that the hole would soon become a problem, for the integrity of the road, if something wasn’t done to repair it.

I stopped at the site.  I looked at the freshly packed dirt.  I noticed the scraping of a tractor scoop and how the dirt had been carefully, and skillfully, packed to fill the road-deteriorating hole.  That’s where the dirt had gone!  While cutting the grass Marv, like me, had also noticed the hole in the shoulder of the road.  But, unlike me, Marv had noticed, solved and improved.

A third click!  It’s easy for you and me to notice problems and be critical.  Click! We all could be a little more like Marv.  It’s great to notice, but we could also provide a solution. 

If we could make that one small change in our lives we’d be making the streets we live on just a little better.  We’d be improving our towns and cities just that much more.  Then, by individuals adding one improvement after another, our nation and our world would have more holes filled and more lives enriched. 

Notice, solve and improve, three words that have the potential to fill lots of holes in our lives and the lives of those we live with.