A few years ago my family began making fruits and vegetables our meal’s main course instead of meat. So we begin to eat more fruits and vegetables than ever before. We would eat the vegetables and/or the fruit and whatever scraps we had left we would throw the scraps into the trash can. If we had old uneaten lettuce in the refrigerator we would throw them in the trash.

Then my sister, Angie, talked to me about composting and we decided to start composting as a family. We purchased a trash can poked holes into the sides and lid then we started taking all the scraps from the vegetables and fruit to the compost bin.

The reason why we started practicing vegetarian / vegan was because my wife was diagnosed with cancer. We researched what we could do to help prevent its return and we learned that we could eat a more nutrient rich diet with more fruits and vegetables and eat less meat. This change has had great effect on reversing or slowing down many other medical issues too. We saw a moment we could have seen as trash as an chance to grow ourselves.

Well since composing I’ve learned two valuable life lessons:

1. See trash differently.

What’s one person’s trash is another person’s treasure the old adage goes. Things we see as trash can actually help to grow our lives beyond our current limitations. Using the trash to compost has helped us to put the compost back into our fruit and vegetable garden which has given nutrients to the fruit and vegetable garden providing more fruits and vegetables which we use to sustain our bodies. We only have seen this because we dared to see our trash differently.

2. Come back to the practice of growth.

Composting helps us to be reminded that growth as a process. When I take the scraps to the compost I am reminded of the practice of growth that takes place in my life on a daily basis. It reminds me of being diligent about seeing circumstances and situations I don’t want Not as trash but as something that may bring nutrients into my life something which can strengthen me make me more flexible make give me more endurance and balance me.

Our lives are filled with trash if we see it that way. Or our lives are filled with opportunities for growth if we see it that way. I hope and pray we choose the latter.

Thanks to Del Barrett for sharing their work on Unsplash.

Let’s continue the conversation on Twitter.