About 20 years ago a group of kids at YMCA Day Camp scavenged the area for large rocks and then arranged the rocks on the ground to make a large "Y" and then put a circle of rocks around the "Y."

Just recently my wife and I took a hike and walked around the long-since abandoned day camp site while reminiscing about 1980s day camp kids and counselors. During this excursion my wife discovered under the grass what appeared to be rocks forming a large circle. Further investigation showed more rocks that shaped a Y in the middle of the circle. Yet all this was really strange because there was a stand of pine trees perfectly situated inside the circle. I just didn’t recall the kids building the Y around a group of trees.

Then we remembered…pine cones. The kids had filled in the circle and around the Y with pine cones. The kids had unwittingly planted pine trees. And now look - there are trees!

Now I could have all sorts of fun drawing clever correlations from this little story. However, I’ll just go to the blinding obvious: what we do today, whether intentional or not, has a profound impact on others that continues for many years, yes, even generations into the future. The lesson, of course, is that we need to pay careful attention to what we do, for there are no meaningless acts.

This is a good reminder for us to always strive to plant positive seeds. Quite likely that with a recent conversation or small act you unwittingly sowed some seeds. Our aim should be to continually endeavor to make sure that those are good seeds so that they will grow into fruits of joy for those that follow. After all, what a huge difference a few well-placed pine cones make!