What Are You Doing To Make The World A Better Place?"

The Acorn Planter
By: Brian Cavanaugh

In the 1930s, a young traveler was exploring the French
Alps. He came upon a vast stretch of barren land. It was
desolate. It was forbidding. It was ugly. It was the kind
of place you hurry away from.

Then, suddenly, the young traveler stopped dead in his
tracks. In the middle of this vast wasteland was a bent-
over old man. On his back was a sack of acorns. In his hand
was a four-foot length of iron pipe.

The man was using the iron pipe to punch holes in the
ground. Then from the sack he would take an acorn and put
it in the hole. Later, the old man told the traveler, "I've
planted over 100,000 acorns. Perhaps only one-tenth of them
will grow."

The old man's wife and son had died, and this was how he
chose to spend his final years. "I want to do something
useful," he said.

Twenty-five years later the now-not-as-young traveler
returned to the same desolate area. What he saw amazed him;
he could not believe his own eyes. The land was covered
with a beautiful forest two miles wide and five miles long.
Birds were singing, animals were playing, and wildflowers
perfumed the air.

The traveler stood there recalling the desolation that
once was. A beautiful oak forest stood there now - all
because someone cared.

What small thing can you do today to make the world a more
beautiful place?