August 31, 2021

by drplasticpicker

I’m at bag #534. I gathered two bags yesterday waiting for our daughter to finish her volleyball practice at Salt Creek Recreational Center. It’s a beautiful riparian habitat around the field, and I walked around the perimeter of the field that borders the actual creek. There are wild places even in suburban areas, and I gravitate to the wild places and views. I heard birds at the edge of the playing fields and the sounds of insects. I tried to gather the pieces of human litter that were close to the wild places, caught within the protective armour of the reeds and wildgrasses. The plants and the trees were trying to keep our plastic out.

I’m halfway to my goal now. My goal is 1000 bags of litter. I’ll post this months total later, but it was a more productive month than what I expected. I walk up the slopes and inclines where others forget to look, and find the debris of our lives. I have to believe I am making a difference. My activism is very literal. I have to see that I’m doing something everyday. I need to see the litter. I need to see that I am removing the pollution. I have to see that I’m helping bring back life to our earth, and have to see the carbon sequestering into the soil.

Every bag has been meaningful. It’s helped me figure out my life, and has helped me figure out how to help the earth. No matter what happens, at least I have a hobby now that I enjoy. As I was telling a patient I have to keep on being a doctor too, because I’m Dr. Plastic Picker not Mrs. Plastic Picker or Miss Plastic Picker or Hey You Plastic Picker. And a doctor needs patients including the earth.