Windchimes...Not For Me!

   Windchimes are not for me.  I do love the melodic tinkling that fills the air with each breeze coming off the Bay.  I do love the intricate designs of some of the better made chimes.  I do love the ingenuity behind those who can put together a chime that can send a listener into a calmer mood.  I do not love restringing those things once the weather has taken a toll on the piece.  That, my friends, is NOT for me!  I usually do not have a problem with repairing things that become broken.  As a kid, I was always taught to repair or repurpose damaged items but restringing a windchime this morning nearly got the best of me.  The style with metal tubes or bamboo pieces never presented a problem so I decided it was time to repair one that was strung with capiz shells.  That small chime set made me realize just how "fumble fingered" (Mom's phrase) I have become.  I could hardly tie the eight million or so knots that were required to get the goofy thing tinkling again!  

  In all fairness, I do have a good amount of arthritis in my right hand making it difficult to hold small things but I felt somewhat like a spider with fifty or so flipflopping bugs in my tangled web.  The fishing line that needed to be used was of the finest sort and those capiz shells are as light as feather.  (They also have sort of a chalky coating making them hard to grasp!)  Each time, I would poke that line through one hole, it would slip and slide right back out and occasionally poke itself into the wrong place. Tying the knots was another story as they had to be tight enough to not slip but not too tight where the paper thin shell would cut them.  Keep in mind I did all of this at five in the morning so the brain was probably still a bit sleep-skewed.  

  Still, about two hours after starting, I finished the job! It was one of those "can't quit" things because the cat would have surely made things a lot worse had I abandoned the task midways.  Had...to...finish!  Should I have just tossed the chimes and bought a new?  Nope.  My nephew brought the windchimes from the island where he lives.  The locals there make amazing crafts from what they have on hand and he knew I would appreciate the workmanship. I love the windchimes and the music remind me of my incredible nephew.  Besides, I am not one to trash something without attempting to repair it first.  This attempt nearly did me in, however!  Hopefully, I will never get a harebrained idea to use capiz shells for anything...ANYTHING!

Nothing Goes To Waste

  Back in the day, I was taught never to waste anything.  If something broke, you repaired it.  If something was not longer needed as its original purpose, you made it into something else.  You repaired, reused or repurposed everything.  Items were saved because money was tight back on the farm.  Nowadays, we live in a throwaway society. People cringe at the thought of reusing items or remaking items but that was not the norm years ago.  Now, as garbage dumps are overflowing, folks have a toss it attitude even when things can still be used.  I guess I still cannot break the train of thought that "Put it up. Some day, you made need that!" drilled into my head.  To this day, waste is a pet peeve of mine.  Use it until it is gone.  Make it over to be useful again.  Give it second life.  

  Critters on the Bayou are much the same.  They make do.  They use what they find.  They do not waste.  Just this afternoon, I noticed critters making use of something that others had tossed the wayside. The family of otters are great scavengers that will crack open and eat the mollusks that are embedded in the marsh.  It only takes a second for them to crack the shell, fish out the tasty treat and go on to the next one.  Once they drop the (almost) empty shell, others that cannot crack the shells, feast upon the remnants.  I observed as a small crab was pulling the shreds of mollusk from the now opened shell.  The little crab was a happy camper at his good fortune.  He would not go hungry tonight!  Once the crab had gotten his fill and buried down in the mud for a rest, a school of bull minnows raided the shell.  The shell was flipped, turned, uprighted and twisted.  Every tiny tidbit was being pulled from the mollusk shell. The minnows were in a feeding frenzy! Dozens of the wee fish fought over each and every scrap until the shell was pulled clean.  Nothing was wasted.  The shell sat empty.  That empty shell, itself, will not go to waste.  Algae will grow on the shell and Olive Nerites will harvest this as their food. Over time, the shell will slowly sink beneath the mud and give stability to the shoreline.  The marsh grass will become better rooted because of the presence of the shells making erosion from tides and storms less likely.  As the shell eventually deteriorates,  calcium is returned into the soil.  Nothing goes to waste.

  If only people could follow the example set forth by Mother Nature, this world would be a far better place.  There is no need to constantly replace what can be used again.  Waste is a terrible thing.  I think I will stick with the teaching of those long ago.  Reuse, repurpose, repair or recycle. My critter friends are onto something good here.