Learning to slow down
When I read this article on Slow Living, some of what it said about living sustainably really hit home. How many of our communities are built for rapid transportation, around cars and trains, rather than around people? How often do we sit down with the family and eat a home cooked meal? How often do we take the time to just sit and chat with an elderly relative? Browse our favorite bookstore? Sit and sip a cup of coffee and read the paper? Take a walk through the neighborhood?
One thing I have tried very hard to do as I’ve gotten older and wiser is control the number of hours I devote to work-related tasks. That is often easier said than done, but when I have a day off, I really try hard to keep work-related projects out of my day and focus on family related projects or hobbies. I wonder how many of us live super busy lives by choice, without really stopping to examine those choices and how we might make different choices? My husband and I make a point to sit on the deck, sip a glass of wine, and watch the hummingbirds and just talk whenever we get the chance. We both have jobs that require different shifts, so sometimes we don’t have any days off together for many days in a row.
When you reach your last day on Earth, do you really want the defining memories of your life to be “Well, I had a really busy life”?
The Truth About Movies
I am getting an education this week on how difficult it is for a small museum to rent or buy movies that complement our exhibits. We don’t charge for them, they are just a “value added” for our patrons when they come to the museum. So far I have learned that public performance rights cost at least $150 per movie, even with severe limits on how often and to how many times you can show it, none of the vendors who can license to us for public performance carries much of anything that is educational, and we can’t qualify for a general umbrella license to show movies because we are a museum and have ‘live venues’.
Listen up, movie moguls–we need a way for small nonprofits to find decent educational videos that they can afford to use in their public programming. We don’t plan to make a ton of money off of them, just educate people on the issues we present in our exhibits.
But then we all know Hollywood has never been about the money…right?
Seeing Beauty in the Every Day
When I read this article on the Japanese philosophy of wabi-sabi, it really resonated with me. I see, what to me, is so much excess in the way some people live. Spend, spend, spend on what is new and shiny and expensive, with no reverence for what is beautiful because of its history and its familiarity and the caring that it represents, something hand made and passed on from one member of the family to another. It may be nicked and scarred and stained…but each of those marks has a memory attached to it, no matter how small.
So look around your office or house or shop today and try to see what you have through new eyes. Try to see the beauty of the history and memories that live in an object and not just what is on the surface. Learn to look deeper, with people and with life, to appreciate the beauty of simple living.
I want this handbag!!
Now this is what I call upcycling for a thrift store handbag. Jeff Crystal has provided instructions for installing a solar battery in a handbag that will keep your cell phone powered up as you are out and about. The bag was crafted by Mark Farina and could be all the next rage–he is taking requests to ‘solar up’ bags.
Have a green holiday!
Here we are just four weeks from Thanksgiving and I really haven’t thought about what I’ll do this year for Christmas. The holiday season is, without a doubt, one of the most consumer oriented, waste producing times of year. Not to sound like a grinch–I love the holidays, but several years ago, my family decided to scale back on Christmas and make it more about family get together than gift exchange. We limit gifts to less than $20 or something hand made and focus instead on trying to get together for the holidays. We cook a big, family, gut-busting meal, pull out card games and family albums, and laugh til we cry.
Check out the new i-House from Clayton Homes
These little homes were featured in a recent issue of Mother Earth News. I like what I see so far in their attempts to provide affordable green modular homes. The Clayton i-House would definitely be worth checking out if you are looking for a more sustainable lifestyle.
Recycling electronics
This is something we struggle with all the time. Being a family of geeks, we have way too much obsolete electronic clutter around. We don’t want to send it to a land fill, but sometimes you can’t even give the stuff away, so it just piles up in the garage. This article from GreenLivingTips has several good resources for getting rid of old electronics.
Repurposing telephone books
Recently, I was ranting on the number of telephone books that were delivered to my house and what a silly waste of paper they are. Today, I came across a similar rant and a very clever idea from Chica and Jo to create a desktop pen, pencil and office clutter organizer out of a phone book. I just may have to try making this one!
Controlling sponge nasties
I often wonder what kind of nasties I’m spreading around my kitchen when I use a sponge repeatedly. I can’t afford to use a new one every time I clean and it would be hugely wasteful even if I could afford it. I also don’t want to use the disposable bleach wipes every time I clean, also hugely wasteful. I occasionally clean my counters with a 10% bleach solution, especially if I’ve been working with something like raw meat, but that still leaves the problem of the sponge and how to sanitize it.
Thankfully, our government has come to the rescue on that one. This is an excellent article from the USDA Agricultural Research Service on the most effective ways to clean sponges–Best Ways to Clean Kitchen Sponges. I don’t use the dry cycle on my dishwasher, but I do have a microwave. Be sure the sponge is damp and zap it for one minute. That method was 99.99% effective in the ARS trials.
I found another interesting article on the different kinds of sponges on the Green Living Tips blog. I may try growing luffas just to see how well they hold up as kitchen sponges. I tried growing gourd vines as shade covers for my kennel and it worked really well, giving me a nice supply of gourds for crafting and good shade for my dogs in the hottest part of the year. The dogs were entertained by the lizards and other critters that inhabited the vines. The luffa may work equally well, assuming I can grow it in the mountains of New Mexico. Hmmm…need to do some searching on high altitude gardening.
Day one of my more sustainable life
I spent the entire day working on business things and just loved it. I probably put in more hours today than I normally would in a salaried job, but it feels so good to be in control of my day, to be in an environment that is peaceful and healthy. I spent the last seven months in one of the most oppressive professional environments I’ve ever experienced in my life. But it is behind me now and I am rejoicing.
Everyone should take the time to educate themselves about workplace abuse and particularly what constitutes verbal abuse in the workplace and the effect it can have. Professional staff at universities are usually “at will” employees, which means they are not under contract and can be controlled with the threat of losing their job. I had to chose between my honor and my paycheck and, though being unemployed for the first time in 20 some odd years is scary, being my own boss is a rush like you would not believe!!
