Love Your Mother!
For more posts about the Mother Love habitude for April, click on the “habitude” category above.
It’s April, time for earth day! Let’s love our mother by taking on some earth-friendly practices for the month of April.
In college I had a job on the student council that allowed me to put on cultural and political events. This was right after the Exxon Valdez oil spill, and there was a hot band on campus that was wildly popular and I, for once, was “friends with the band.” This inspired me to put on an earth day fundraiser/awareness concert with the December boys. I contracted with the on-campus food service to do the barbeque portion of the event. They served the entire non-vegetarian shindig on STYROFOAM PLATES! By the end of the event there were garbage cans all over the field filled to over flowing with styro plates, plastic cups, and disposable cutlery. Quelle une désastre!
The school paper wrote an editorial, and I felt like crap. After that, in an internally motivated frenzy, I became the master of environmentalism. I cleaned my student apartment with baking soda, bought organic produce, and gave my family 50 Simple Things You Can Do to Save the Earth for Christmas.
Since then my devotion to short showers, vegetarianism, and vermiculture has waned somewhat. I tend to leave the water running while I brush my teeth, and I’ve long ago returned to Comet. (Have you seen what happens to your sink after months of cleaning with baking powder?) Still, I love my mother and I try to give her some good vibes. We use earth friendly laundry detergent , organic shampoos, and tree-friendly toilet paper. We recycle like maniacs and compost every scrap available. I’ve stopped short of spinning my dog’s hair into yarn, but really, I’m pretty good at this earth stuff. Still, I’d like to get better.
So this month, I’m giving up my car. Yep, except for taking the kids to school in the morning (they bus home) and the rare mid-day doctors appointment that just can’t be bused to, I’m à pied for April. I know I won’t be able to totally give up the car, but I’m hoping to get my one-tank-a-month habit down to a half tank.
What do you say? Wanna try to go au naturel avec moi? The first two people who commit to cutting their gasoline consumption in half get a free cloth shopping bag from my favorite natural market! Ready, set, comment!
7 comments
Oy vey…I know we can’t cut the gasoline usage in half b/c of work schedules, but I know we can reduce it. I’ve honestly already been working on it. I’ll do a search for the Cornell College Environmental Club fundraiser tape my friends made many moons ago. I think you’d appreciate it, Rachelle! Yep, I was very “granola” in my college days and did lots of different Earth Day activities to raise awareness! We use Melaleuca products now, which are also environmentally friendly.
BTW, how’s your head? Praying this Holy Week brings blessings of healing for you my friend!!! –K
We must be on the same wavelength Rachelle, because I have been cutting down on driving for a while now, but just decided to make the season of Easter truly about the resurrection of the body for me, including the body of Mother Earth and I was going to challenge myself to drive even less than I already do. Lovely idea! I support you all the way. See you later. . . :-) Christine
hey rach, i sucked so bad at last month’s habitude that i’m leary of ‘signing up’ – but i am praying for, meditating on and leaning into a life that is more gentle.
i have made a plan to have a plan for our family to celebrate earth day on the 22nd and i think it might include something like this my friend cheryl blogged about today:
ocotillo: prayer flags, bees and the wind: “ocotillo”
Oh, please everyone, play along in whatever way you want. Pledge to turn off the stereo before you leave the house, get one of those rainwater catch barrels for the back yard, swtich to tupperware from plastic wrap for your leftovers. Every little bit helps!
Give us some more ideas on how to Love Your Mama!
I am replacing all our light bulbs, slowly, with the energy savers.
I only drive when I have to, we live 15 miles from town so I have to make every trip count – I promise to make no unnecassary trips this month.
I am using organic soap, shampoo and have ordered a new deoderant to try.
I will order some organic laundry and dish soap for this month’s habitude.
I grow all our vegetables, organically, during the summer.
Your right – every little bit than we can do helps.
Now, turn off that water while you brush your teeth :)
aola, funny you mention the light bulbs! I just found out today that if I’d known, I could’ve gotten a $2/bulb “refund” from the electric company. I have about 50% of our lights switched to compact flourescents. Regular flourescents are terrible triggers for many migraine sufferers, but the compacts don’t do the flickering.
Rachelle, also we have a tote box in our backyard for composting all of our veggie/fruit/leaf trash.
So, I read the entry last weekend and I have stopped running the water while brushing my teeth. Was suprisingly easy to do. And, I bought compact flourescent bulbs to replace the burnt out bulbs scattered around the house. I wait half a second for the light to pop on now but I think I can be that patient.
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