For awhile now, we had been experiencing a series of mischievous pranks from our neighbour. Our water lily pot had been the target ever since it had been shifted outside the house to capture more natural sunlight for the plants to flourish.
As a gardening hobbyist, it pains me to see litter being thrown at random into the pot. We have fished out candy wrappers, egg shells, plastic jelly cups and bits of food stuff found floating. There were a few instances of a layer of oil and sticky flotsam that had to be flushed out. Ask any plant enthusiast and they would tell you this is damaging for the aquatic plants and fishes as it upsets the water pH balance and other conditions.
Turning detective, becoming the judge
We set up surveillance measures subsequently. Who would have known, this person became more aggressive with his attacks, doing it more often. He also became more vicious as we found our plant leaves tattered and strewn around. Even my tomato seedling that was beside it got uprooted and can’t be found anywhere!
Although we now have an identity of the culprit, we thought over what actions we want to take to tackle this problem. Do we want to confront the person, bid him to stop the mindless vandalism? Or report to the authorities? What will they do? These acts are not considered to be extremely criminal, though it does annoy us especially when we have to clear up after.
In the end, we have decided instead to just let it be. Perhaps this delinquent will get bored over time and hopefully channel his energies elsewhere. Any actions taken by us might backfire, instead of resolving the matter it resulting in exposing my household and our items at risk to more petty acts.
Don’t let the small things sweat
There are a lot more important things in life to us that demand our attention. It will definitely be more worth it rather to focus on them, then waste our time and emotions on such frivolous stuff. It’s clear how exactly the perpetrator is looking to seek a reaction from us. So don’t give them the gratification of knowing how their trivial acts would bother us.
For now, I’ll just focus on keeping our little aquatic community happy. Thrive with more growth and multiply the little fishes!
