Blog No 6 – “Who in the heck are you?”
This was not rhetorical. Honestly, my husband just asked me this yesterday. It was kind of a strange question from the man I’ve been with since I was nineteen years old, but there it is. He said it after I reminded him of the only slightly controversial thing in my history that he seemed to have forgotten, but more on that later.
I remember being in Middle school when my teacher started sharing with us how we could “save the environment.” Recycling was starting in my area and school was the vehicle with which to get the adults on board. I went home and proudly told my parents all about it. We had already been saving soda cans, but that was more about the money we would earn when we turned them in. After dinner, we did the dishes and happened to empty the container of dishwashing liquid. I told my Mom that we needed to rinse it out and put it in the recycling bin. We proceeded to do so. We rinsed and rinsed, but we kept producing bubbles. I told Mom we needed to get it clean before recycling and she said, “Do you have any idea how much water we’re wasting?”
She was absolutely right and we gave up and put it in the bin.
As I got older, I made more of an effort to hop on this train but kept most of the major conveniences, like using throw away water bottles. When I think about when things actually changed, it was when this group entered the picture.
Four of my very special Grand Nieces Summer of 2021
These are just a handful of the children I get to call my Grand Nieces and Nephews. Jeff and I have sixteen nieces and nephews plus eleven great nieces and nephews that were born into our family. I was only seven years old when the first nephew was born and as he recently pointed out to me, he’s more my brother than my nephew. Being so young when they started arriving made me a bit of an aunt in name only, as I wasn’t truly mature enough to know what my role was.
But after a 30-year marriage with no kids to call our own, I will tell you that I truly relish the role of being an Auntie to this young layer of our family. And when the first of the Grand Nieces arrived on the scene, I had a bit of an epiphany. I needed to do more to make the Earth a better place for them. I needed to focus more on sustainable items in my home and in my business.
If you’ve never tried a Swedish Dish Cloth as a replacement for paper towel, send me a message. I would be happy to send one to you for the cost of shipping. They are fabulous and one replaces seventeen roles of paper towels in its lifespan. It’s biodegradable and absorbs twenty times its weight. They are made of organic cotton and the family-owned company that I source them from are proud to be a 1% For The Planet business, funding projects for environmental protection and restoration around the US.
One Swedish Dish Cloth does the work of all this paper towel!
The idea of sustainable products is the same reason why I source more than half my wardrobe from secondhand shops, use reusable straws and make most of my rustic décor out of things I find at stores like Goodwill and St. Vinny’s. When I see a piece of furniture that looks like it has life in it, I feel like it’s my duty to try and save it. If I can make it new again and it doesn’t end up in a dump somewhere, I count that as a win.
So what did I do that was controversial? Back in college, I belonged to a group called Zero Population Growth. It was the result of a Biology class that scared me enough to think that the world would end in my lifetime and I was young and impressionable (it was the 80’s for crying out loud). And before you ask, no, it’s got nothing to do with why I don’t have my own children.
At this point, I prefer to skip the groups and take action where I can, hoping to make a difference for all those young people that I love.
Thanks for coming along for the ride.