This is not the post I imagined I would write this week, but the truth is, I am overwhelmed. It’s only temporary, I know, but as I try to make a gentle living, tend the still ripening garden and the rest of life, and slowly put together this movement…it’s all swirling. While I wait for it all to settle out a bit, here is a post I wrote for Wisteria & Sunshine almost eight months ago (I called it “small ways, large ways”) when I was trying to get to same message I have today…when you don’t know where to turn, or where to begin-to simply think of the trees-in all that we do-might be the best first step. I’ll add some new thoughts at the end…
Small Ways have been a part of Wisteria & Sunshine from the very beginning. In fact, the page where I introduced them was created a month before I opened the doors here, in January of 2012. They will always be valuable and integral to what I see as a life of wild simplicity & deep domesticity…
“with less plastic, less thrown away, less to care for and store, less time spent consuming and more time enjoying the beauty and tactile pleasure of more traditional and earthy things and ways.”
These ways bring peace, influence others and do make a difference. But when I wrote about Small Ways nine years ago, we didn’t realize how dire the climate crisis was…how imperiled the plants and seas and creatures of all sorts-including us-truly are. And all that the zero-waste practitioners and other conscious folk have been doing isn’t changing the shops and chains and corporations as quickly as we might have hoped when these approaches began…or as they continue on.
And I wonder if, like me, you have found some of these approaches very difficult to live out, at least, without it taking more time and money than can be spared? Or at the cost of bodily energy and mental health? That sounds a bit dramatic, but depending on one’s circumstances (and local) it can become a complicated, unsustainable practice. All the times I have started a conversation in the stores I frequent, asking about how the loose, organic apples arrive at the store and where they come from…what they do with packaging afterwards…then weighing that against the more affordable organic apples in the plastic bag. Just one tiny example.
Lately, with all I have been hearing and learning, I’ve decided it is important-imperative, in my opinion-to add some Large Ways to our lives. Discouragement is probably what has most moved me in this direction, along with all that scientists are finding and sharing. I am just not confident that enough people, companies and governments will begin to care for the planet (in the ways it needs and deserves) quickly enough. As much as love and honor Mary Reynold’s new movement that is her response to the urgency, I see how difficult it will be to gather momentum. So much more understanding is needed…even within my own household! So.
While we go on finding and deepening with all of the Small Ways we care for the earth, some Large Ways may help keep her going (and us) while all of the individual, personal caring takes root. And it seems to me, to focus on trees is a simple, worthwhile path. If carbon emissions aren’t going to be lowered as quickly as they ought to be, let’s protect all of the trees that exist now and plant more and more and more. They will reduce emissions for us, lovely beings that they are.
I already give monthly to treesisters.org, in Wisteria & Sunshine’s name, but will be giving monthly to conservation.org so they can plant and protect even more than they do already. Have you taken the carbon footprint quiz there, that I linked to in our ebook? It is illuminating. My carbon footprint is equal to what 237 trees can offset, annually. I didn’t include Doug’s driving (with a Prius, thank goodness, but still…) because I don’t have those numbers yet. All of the helpful tips at the end of the calculator, I already do, but they may motivate you if you haven’t thought about or acted upon meat-eating or travel and many other facets of life.
Listening to Robin Kimmerer’s Braiding Sweetgrass as I tried to fall asleep last night, she spoke about the basketmaking by the local tribe and the respectful practices they use from the felling of the ash tree (or not, if they don’t perceive permission) to the weaving. She spoke of our almost total disregard for paper and what went into the making of it, and I was in tears to think how little progress has been made in this way of caring for the earth. The trees, again. Agriculture and all it’s terrible impacts (and hope for turning things around if it can become regenerative and circular again) are destroying forests…all of the needless construction that goes on…the logging…and the trees that are dying across the planet because of acidic rain and chemicals. We owe so much to these wise and wonderful beings and if it makes the Large ways simpler to approach to have one focus, perhaps this should be the one.
Know the ways of the ones who take care of you, so that you may take care of them. Introduce yourself. Be accountable as the one who comes asking for life. Ask permission before taking. Abide by the answer.
Give thanks for what you have been given.
Give a gift, in reciprocity for what you have taken.
-Braiding Sweetgrass
In honor of our focus on caring this month, it would be encouraging if you would share your thoughts on Small Ways and Large Ways…if you’ve chosen a Small Ways focus this year?…what is challenging and what is rewarding with all that we are called to do…
And in October, I am thinking that to remember the trees, in all we do might look like…
-giving as much as you can, as often as you can to groups whose mission is to protect and grow the forests of the world. I gave links to two in this post. Please share any others that you know are doing this!
-being more thoughtful about your use of paper (for home office use, for crafting, for the bathroom, for the kitchen, and so on.) This is a longtime focus and passion of mine. Use what you have, for a start, then when you need more, buy only tree-free, 100% post-consumer recycled paper or use alternatives.
-stop buying new magazines and books. In the U.S. alone, more than 30 million trees are cut down a year to make printed books. Add magazines and newspapers and it is mind-boggling. So much waste. And there is no excuse for it as there are wonderful completely recycled papers out there especially made for this. If there are magazines you feel you can’t live without (I used to feel this way!) contact the makers and demand they change. This is the sort of large way (going beyond our own households) that I am working on to share here, to make it easier and more impactful.
-honor, appreciate and protect any tree you come in contact with. Express your love and gratitude for all that they give. Learn more about them (there are so many books available at the moment-at your library!-about the lives of trees. They are so much more like us than we ever knew and it is my secret hope that all they do for us will end up saving us, if only we would let them more of them live and thrive.)
That’s what I’ve got for now. I need to get to work in my studio, designing some more tree-free alternatives for calendars, planners and stationery. : )
Anna October 15, 2019 at 10:08 pm
The last two years we have really been transitioning from doing many small things to making big changes. I was pregnant with my now 8-month-old when I first learned how dire the climate change situation is. This is after trying to live in an environmentally friendly way for years, but not making it The Most Important Thing because of careers, children, and the general busyness of life. Now it feels like an emergency.
We recently calculated our carbon footprint and the biggest single item was diet, and that’s after choosing the vegetarian option, as the little meat we buy is from a farm that practices regenerative agriculture. Reducing our diet footprint will be our main focus (when it comes to personal lifestyle changes) going forward. This means expanding our little suburban garden to produce more fruit/veggies/nuts, buying as much other fruit/veg from our neighborhood community farm, joining a grain/legume CSA, carefully sourcing our meat from a regenerative agriculture farm, and reducing the dairy and other non-local foods we buy.
Other things we are already doing:
* I stopped working last fall. Previously I was an astronomer, but I didn’t like all the travel (especially air travel) that was expected of me and I didn’t like not having enough time to do all the small ways of caring for the planet. Now I would describe myself as a radical homemaker, spending my intellectual energy on building community and (increasingly) climate activism.
* We purposefully bought a small house with a yard last spring in a location that allows us to live car-free in the future. The yard is almost entirely converted to gardens for veggies, fruit, herbs, medicine, dye plants, and flowers. The goal is to have a small food forest. We do have an older car, mostly to visit my family in rural Maine, but I don’t want to replace it when it dies. My husband bikes 45 min to work each way or takes public transit. I don’t drive at all, so I walk or take public transit. I would have LOVED to live in a more rural area like where I grew up, but suburbia is our compromise for getting around easily, jobs, and still having a tiny bit of land to tend.
* Despite having very efficient natural gas heat, we are moving towards only using renewable energy in our home, and as little total energy as possible. Our electricity is 100% renewables and we are looking into heat pumps for heat and solar hot water options. We skip AC in the summer, line dry our clothes, and keep the thermostat low in the winter. I suppose this item is made up of a lot of small ways that come together to create a bigger change for us.
* We are trying to live off a third of our income, save a third for the future, and donate the remaining third to social and environmental justice organizations/people. It is a work in progress, but it encourages us to be very frugal and buy as few new things as possible. Most things in our home are secondhand, from family, friends, shops, or for free on the side of the road.
* We are trying not to fly if at all possible. The next time we may have to fly is next summer for my brother-in-law’s wedding. I’m wondering if it’s better to take more time to travel via train, or whether all the waste generated on a multi-day train trip plus more time away from the garden in August when I should be preserving food is worth it.
If I am honest with myself, the most important things I could be doing are to 1) donate as much money as possible towards addressing climate change and put savings on hold and 2) spend more energy on climate activism and less on my personal lifestyle optimizations. However, I find the personal lifestyle work is really important for my own mental health. It helps me feel like I am doing something and have control over at least some aspects of my life. I also feel like we can’t ask for a revolution without something better to replace the current system, so I am experimenting with how we can live more lightly on the earth in suburbia.
Lesley October 18, 2019 at 8:58 am
This is so helpful and inspiring, Anna…it is the living out of the Make Do & Mend mindset, without it being imposed from “outside” as it was in the war. I’m glad you brought up conserving the heat and electricity as this is something everyone can do without expense or much thought.
Since looking at all of this in a new way since reading and watching what I’ve shared, I’ve been remembering the days of the “oil crisis” when our president asked us all to turn down the thermostat to 68 degrees…that number is in my mind forever. Such a powerful ask and it would mean so much to have that sort of ask again, wouldn’t it? In the meantime, we have to ask these things of ourselves, as you and your family are doing.
We haven’t turned the heat on or lit a fire yet this year, tho’ I would have by now in past years. But I don’t mind being chilly and shivery for awhile, knowing that every little bit helps. And, again, this is the sort of thing I want to be able to weave into our movement…to take it beyond our homes and ask of the shops and other places we frequent to give the same thought to shifts like this.
Oh! And having a garden, or supporting local regenerative gardens and farms is essential for this to work. I’ve been thinking that a new name for Victory gardens would be helpful, but maybe it’s a good name for this era, too?
P.S. I sent you an email a few days ago and hope it isn’t lost in spam or something similar. It happens often these days…
tonia October 22, 2019 at 1:39 pm
So inspiring Anna! I love the deliberate choices you are making as a family. May we all be so thorough and committed. Thanks so much for sharing here!