PBP :: E is for Earth-Friendly

All my life, there's been a part of me that has intrinsically known the importance of stewardship to the earth.  And yes, I realize just how pompous and pretentious that sentence may sound, how disingenuine.  And yet, it's the truth as my memories have provided for me.  I've always had a connection to the land, the water, the animals around me.  I would love to say that it's because it was my destiny, but that smacks of disingenuity and pretension even more.  But at this point, that discussion is neither here nor there.  Whether or not I've had a history of this particular attitude is only important because of how it led to the way I feel and act now.

For me, the whole Earth-Friendly movement is really important.  Even before I was officially on my spiritual path, I always felt that we should be more cognizant of the earth as a living entity that deserves respect.  I've been recycling for as long as I've known about the concept.  My family would recycle the various beverage containers ever since my teen years.  The rest of the recycling, including paper, would come later.  But I've always used up the paper scraps as much as possible, considering all of the little notes and lists I've always left for myself.

Following the axiom of Reduce, Reuse, Recycle has gotten easier with time.  Like I said in the previous paragraph, I'm always reusing pieces of paper until I can't anymore.  Unless the pieces are too tiny or dirty to use, then they get gathered into the recycling bins.  We use a variety of containers and bags for our food storage, including rewashing the various sizes of plastic "sandwich" bags for reuse.  We always have a full recycling can, as well as a bin or two on occasion.  My only issue lies in the Reduce area because I have packrat tendencies.  But I have been working on trying to curb those tendencies as much as possible, and tend to re-home things I'm not using to people who may need or want them.  If not, those items go to Value Village or Goodwill for others to find and use.

Ever since I first moved to the Pacific Northwest in 1998, I've been picking up trash along the natural places I visit.  In fact, BD and I have a little contest of sorts to see who finds the first piece of trash, the biggest or smallest piece of trash, and the most trash.  We always carry one of our reusable grocery bags with us, to hold our trash and our found treasures.  If we don't have the bag, we use our pockets.  There hasn't been a single time I've been walking along the beaches and not bring back any trash.  And that's just sad that I can say that.  While I'm glad to pick up the trash and keep the beaches as clean as possible, it's upsetting to know that others don't feel the same way.

Every single time I pick up a piece of trash, I feel better for doing so, but I also feel absolutely angry at the others of my species who apparently don't care about how they treat the world we live on and in.  It boggles my mind that there are people who feel that they can simply use and throw away anything in their pursuit of pleasure and comfort.  As a society, we've become far too dependent on resources that are not infinitely available, but it seems that not enough people are willing to look into alternatives to those resources, or other ways to extend their usefulness.

Every single time I pick up a piece of trash, or follow the Reduce, Reuse, Recycle axiom, I feel like I'm doing my part to keep my connection to Mama Gaia alive and active.  I do what I can to leave something beautiful and vital for my nephew and the children of the next generations.  How will they learn what to do without examples from me and my generation?

Being conscious of the world around me is an ingrained habit now.  I hope to see more people with that same ingrained habit before I die.

-- Sadie