双语朗读：开创新生活

中文：

（意译damali ayo – Crow 再生服装公司创建人 的文章，发表在 NPR《This, I belive..》。她的名字以小写为佳。） 

去年夏天，当我看到自家已有百年历史的房门，新开种的花园，和收养的狗，十分感慨：世间万物无一为废，我相信它们都潜藏着延续受用的价值。 

我所指的废物回收不是那些被车拖走的瓶罐废纸等，而是带进了自己的创意，责任，甚至是一种热爱。在金秋的季节里，市里的垃圾车忙于清扫着落叶。今天，我敞开了后院，邀请邻居们将他们园中彩色的落叶都堆放在我新设计的花园里，布置出一番别有情趣的秋色景观，让雨水和洗澡水交替为它湿润。。。 

我相信回收是因为我深知，我所丢弃的每一星垃圾都将会堆积在那些有色人种居住最多的周边，而他们则是我最关爱的人们。我相信，只要我们共同努力，被抛弃的垃圾都能变成重新受用的宝物。 

当看到我的宠物，享受着Stevie 狗狗带给我的欢乐，不禁想到有人曾看见她瞎着眼，被抛弃在林中，我难过地流泪了。这也是我崇信回收的原因之一。。。将来有一天，我希望自己也能被回收，有人会发现我身上的宝藏 --- 一个不再沉迷于过去，勇于开创新生活的人。坐在回收箱旁遐思。。等待走过的人们对我说一声：“你就是我们正在寻觅的人”。

英文：

The Potential For A New Life

by damali ayo

Last summer, I looked out the door of my 100-year-old house at my newly planted garden and my adopted dog. I paused. I was overcome with appreciation. I realized nothing is trash.

I started to look around me at all the things that we ordinarily think of as trash — discarded plastic bags, water from boiled pasta, pulled weeds, rubber bands and newspapers, busted-up concrete, clothes and furniture we outgrow — and I began to think and act and live according to a belief that all things have a continued purpose in the world, if we just find it. I realized I believe in recycling.

The kind of recycling I mean is not just the dividing up of glass and paper and cans and putting those in a bin to be hauled away, but the kind of recycling that requires creativity and commitment, even love.

In my neighborhood, everyone puts out their raked autumn leaves to be picked up by the city — out of sight, out of mind. This didn't fit with my newfound love of reintegrating "trash" into my life, so I mapped out a new garden with flattened moving boxes and put up a sign that said, "Dump your leaves here." I watched through the autumn as my neighbors piled their leaves on this new garden. I watered the leaves with collected rainwater, and even composted some of Stevie's doggie doo. Finally, I got topsoil from Craigslist. Now, I have a new ornamental garden.

My belief in recycling isn't trivial or novelty to me. The trash we make is often dumped in places populated by the people of color. Every piece of trash I throw away, I can feel being thrown in the backyards of the people I care most about in this world. Nothing has to be discarded, really; if you try hard enough, everything can be reintegrated. I even use my bath water to water my garden. Gross as it might seem to my friends, I see it as potential waiting to be filled, as future heads of lettuce, tomatoes and poppies and lilies. This might seem like a big step, but if we can get down to watering our gardens with our bath water, maybe we wouldn't be so afraid of admitting our flaws, mistakes, and failings — maybe our discarded layers would be things to learn from, and ultimately turn into something better.

When I look at my dog, Stevie, I see one of the greatest joys of my life. But someone once saw her as something to be thrown away. She was abandoned and blind and found on her own in the woods. She's a wonderful dog, and when I look at her and remember what she's been through, I'm moved to tears. Maybe this is because I hope to be recycled one day, too — that someone will have the heart to see treasure in me, not just a past full of discarded relationships, but the potential for a new life, just like I do with all the things I recycle in my world. Just like those things, I sit in my metaphoric recycling bin, waiting for someone to pass by and say, "Hey, you're just what I've been looking for."