Our Green, Eco-effort Story
This is for all of you green-ish people like me. We’re not quite crunchy-green, but we’re definitely not anti-earth either. We want to live in a healthy, eco-friendly, health-conscience world, but we’re not completely ready to give up every luxury and not quite sure if we can. But, at the same time, something keeps pulling us back to the effort to change from lives of consumption, waste and “cheaper, faster, better,” to a cleaner, healthier, and more eco-friendly lifestyle.
For me and my family, there was a definite beginning to our going eco-friendly and “Christian” green journey. (¨Our¨ being defined as ¨me¨ and the family I am dragging along reluctantly!)
It All Started with a Napkin
It started with a Lenten class I took several years ago at our parish. It was my introduction to a new vocabulary that included words like “fairtrade,” “stewardship,” “sustainable,” and “foot print.” AND it challenged us to try different things to make a difference in the world. It challenged us to consider our impact on the rest of the world and all the people in it. It challenged us to change our beliefs, our attitudes and our actions.
I did a few different things that Lent, but only one thing really stuck…cloth napkins. It seems like such a little thing, but it was the catalyst that set us out on our green-ish journey. Cloth napkins, then ceramic plates, then stainless silverware. OH MY!
To keep with the challenge given to me by the class leader, I searched and found, colorful cloth napkins. At first my family thought I was totally off my rocker. How could I possibly suggest that we give up patterned, seasonal, buy-em’-by-the-hundred paper napkins and paper plates we were comfortable with?? (You know, the ones that save us moms so much time because we feed our family with them, use them up and throw them in the trash heap without cracking the dishwasher!) That was about 5 or 6 years ago and now my family has a list of whole new reasons to believe I’m crazy.
We now use ceramic (and Corelle) plates, glass drink ware (love them Mason jars!), and stainless steel water bottles. We seek out, buy and enjoy organic food, have a vegetable garden in the summer and just recently, I gave up my chemical hair dye for henna. (Now my friends know I’m nuts!)
Although we’ve made some great changes, it seems like our journey has just begun. I hope you’ll stay with me (and invite your friends!) on our green-ish journey!
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