Monday, April 28, 2008

Sustainable Living..... I'm ready to start learning and doing....



RISING COST OF FOOD
I've been paying attention. I've been reading and educating myself. I'm becoming aware.
The cost of living is absolutely ridiculous. I'm going to complain about it just like the rest of the world does on a daily basis now. You hear about it in simple conversation on a daily basis, at the grocery store, the gas station, work, play. It's not just the cost of food alone but gas, heating our homes, paying for clothing, going to the doctor, paying for medication. It's all high, and it's horrible. For awhile though it was easy to ignore to a degree. So the cost of gas is going up, well we'll try to walk more or take the bus. Can't buy new jeans? Great, buy some second hand. But now it's down to the cost of food, and we can't ignore that anymore. You can't substitute something in place of food. It's our way of living just as the air we breath is. Food is important and people can't afford it anymore.....
NOW WHAT ARE WE GOING TO DO ABOUT IT?

We can all keep going on with our lives and pretend that someone somewhere is going to stand up and fix this problem, but chances are, that's not going to happen..... It's too big for "someone" to fix. Ignorance allows us to keep living and consuming our resources until eventually they will all be exhausted. Sure, occasionally we pick up a National Geographic and read about the larger picture happening in the world but then we put it down and go back to our lives..... someone else's problem right? Wrong. So we must become AWARE. Take time to read about the world and pay attention to why things are happening.
It's amazing and scary once we read even a small portion of the information available to us through the paper, news, books, scientific journals, etc. I took one simple question and I've discovered so much more.... I am chosing not to be ignorant anymore but to pay attention and become aware of why things are happening. The simple question I asked to start this all with was why is my grocery bill so damn high?

That one simple question led me to discover so much! I've learned about supply and demand, world over population, weather trends, droughts, flooding, global warming, wars, cost of fuel, world wide famine, mass consumerism, mass amounts of waste, limited farm land, big business vs. small business, fast lifestyle, unhealthy choices, unhealthy living, government, and the list goes on. Makes me want to run out and SAVE THE WORLD! Well, maybe not so much save the world, it is a bit extreme :-) But I did discover that all of these huge global problems all play a small part into the one simple question I asked myself. So now my big question of what are WE going to do about it has to be reduced. I have to think in smaller portions or I'll get ultimately consumed by overthinking.

WHAT AM I GOING TO DO ABOUT IT?

I am going to start with me, my family. I am going to educate myself about sustainable living practices and try to change my own demand on the resources of the earth. I am going to try everyday to go beyond the new trendy eco-lifestyle. I'm not just going to learn to reduce, reuse, and recycle but I'm going to try to become independent of many of the ways I rely on materials and mass consumption of natural resources. Sure, this is going to take me awhile I'm sure. It can't be done in a day or a week. It takes time and devotion to change a lifestyle but I have sat down and made a list of all the ways it can benefit myself, my family, and the world and my list of results is endless and amazing.....

At the end of each change, my list ended with increased family time, happier children, increased health, less money spent on food, medical needs, and fuel costs, freedom from having to work everyday for money to survive on.
So AM I ready to start this changing process? I think I am. I think we are. Actually I know we are because as we looked around, I, or any of us for that matter, aren't going to be able to keep living the way we have and I want to do something about it before I'm broke, unhealthy, and exhausted, before it's too late.....

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I hope and pray that you do well with this new "sustainable livng" venture in your lifestyle. It would be so beneficial for you and your family in so many ways. And to the world around you. I try and do my part, living in this small place, it's all I need for one person. It's quite a bit to take care of all by my lonesome, but I manage with a little help from my family and few friends that I do have here(neighbors). Don't GIVEUP your venture, it's worthwhile....

Nina said...

the thing is, it can be hard work to change and it takes a lot of dedication but its liberating in more ways than one. Yay(!!) for you and your family.

-jd said...

I'm just glad you know who Captain Planet is now...(as I sing the theme song in my head again).

Barbara said...

Hi Dana,
As a person who has been living my own sort of eco way since before it became trendy I was happy to read what you wrote in this post. If you ever want to talk send me an email.
By the way, I wish I had known about your trip to Florida before you left. Did you travel 75? If you did you passed not too far from my house in Georgia. I could have met you along the way or you could have stopped in my town. You would have been my first blogging friend to meet in person!