Persistence

Some critter (or likely, more than one) has been an unwelcome presence in our garden and yard this spring. We first noticed small holes in the compost pile which we supposed had been made by an armadillo digging around for grubs, but then our suspicions shifted when I bought a couple of zinnias and placed them in large planters on the deck. I put them out one evening, and the next morning, one of them had been pulled out of its container and was lying on the deck, covered in potting soil/compost mixture which had been dug from the pot. It seems unlikely an armadillo could negotiate the steps on the deck or climb into the planter.

Other plantings in the yard and garden have suffered the same fate. Whatever is doing it, is nocturnal and targets just about any place where we've used compost or wood-chip mulch or even have loosened up the existing soil. Where plants are present, it pulls them up, tosses them aside and digs like crazy. We've lived on our place 30 years and have never had this problem before. We were beginning to wonder if it might be a skunk, but after reading about raccoons behaving badly and Allen's late evening venture out to the garden with a flashlight, we have decided those masked marauders are the culprits. I am not a fan of their efforts, but I do admire their persistence. Good-sized rocks, placed on top of the loose soil, do not dissuade them. A wire tomato cage placed around a newly-planted tree saved the tree from being uprooted, but they dug a diagonal hole to get to the compost.

I am reminded of the scripture in Luke chapter 11 where a fellow goes to his friend's house in the middle of the night asking for bread because the first man has had an out-of-town guest arrive and has nothing to feed him. The second man does not want to get up and disturb his whole household to loan bread, but apparently the first one won't go away until he gets what he wants. So, eventually, not because of friendship, "yet because of his persistence he will get up and give him as much as he needs." (v. 8)

Worthwhile endeavors in life usually require more than one try. While being a pest, wearing someone down to get what we want, is probably not a good model for the way to live, neither should we give up on a good idea just because we encounter resistance. Creative change is happening every day because of concepts which started as thoughts which wouldn't go away. What can you do to help change the world for the better? What's stopping you?