Plastic is filling the oceans- let's use less of it and it's not that hard to do!

More Ways to Avoid Plastic

• Jars. So many jars. For salads, soups, sauces, juice, opened packages of things. Just jars. Lots of jars.

• Aluminum foil is a great stand-in for plastic wrap and can be easily recycled or saved for reuse.

• Wax paper is great for wrapping sandwiches. So are reusable sandwich pouches you can make or purchase; many close with Velcro and are easy to launder or wipe clean.

• Reuse empty yogurt, sour cream, or cream cheese containers. You’ve already got them and you have to wash them before tossing them into the recycling bin anyway, so you may as well use them again.

• Invest in reusable lunch containers like bento boxes or tiffins to avoid waste when sending off your little one (or yourself) with a bagged lunch.

I Love Big Bags and I Cannot Lie

Bring reusable shopping bags when heading to the store. Whether you are grocery shopping or heading out with friends to splurge on clothes, take your own bags with you. Many stores have totes and reusable bags for a few dollars by the checkout lines and these are more durable, hold more objects, and last much longer than the flimsy plastic and paper bags we get from supermarkets, which are not biodegradable. Additionally, reusable shopping bags are a great way to “go green” and help the environment by using less plastic and cutting down less trees.

April showers, right?

Making the Most of a Rainy Day

Get a rain barrel:

• Install the rain barrel at least six feet from your house. Locating it near the area you’ll be watering the most makes for convenient use later.

• Ensure that your rain barrel has an overflow at least as large as your inflow—for example, if you have rigged it so that water is collected directly from your eaves’ trough downspout, your overflow valve should be as large as your downspout as well. This will allow your barrel to get rid of excess water as fast as it collects it, which might be necessary if you live in a city with crazy, unpredictable weather like my brother does.

• If you are using the rain barrel to water your garden, consider using a soaker hose. You can attach the hose to the rain barrel and then run it through your garden so that it covers the area you’d like.  Now, every time you see a rain cloud, you’ll get really excited!

Celebrate Earth Day Every Day!

This is the day to acknowledge your connection to your home planet and all the nurturing nature, bounty and beauty you receive from this big blue dot. April 22nd is Earth Day, celebrated annually in over 184 countries in the effort for a healthy environment and a peaceful planet. Earth Day inspires grassroots communities to hold events and actions to educate and spread awareness. Earth Day celebrates our connection with nature, bringing awareness that each one of us is responsible for the destruction or abundance of our natural world...the only one we have. Earth Day makes us realize that each of us has a voice and every one of our actions matters; collectively great things happen. Celebrate Earth Day by joining an organized group and help clear beaches, parks and wasteland of cans, paper plastic, bottles, trash. God out with your family and friends, or go out alone. Look around in your neighborhood to see what needs to be done, petition your local government for more trees, cleaner waterways, and an end to industrial pollution. Use earth-friendly chemicals; recycle paper, cans, and green stuff.

Log onto www.earthday.org or check your local press to find out what is happening in your area, how to organize your own event, or what commitment you could make in your own small way to help save our Earth...and then make every day Earth Day. 

Invitations To Life’s Rich Banquet

If you see a uniformed soldier or veteran in a restaurant, arrange to pay for their meal. Anonymously is perfect unless you want to thank them personally and “enlist” a new friend into your life!

Calling all sun-worshippers

Solar ovens are inexpensive to buy, easy to use, and you’ll cook for free every time you use one. Solar ovens cook food without using electricity, fossil fuels, or propane. Food cooked in a solar oven retains all vitamins and minerals. Solar ovens also pasteurize water for drinking. A solar oven is perfect for your emergency supply kit. Check out www.solarovens.org to see the great work this nonprofit is doing with solar ovens in Third World countries. Go solar and really worship the sun.

Need a hug?

Be an indiscriminate hugger. When I first moved to California, I was a bit taken aback by all the hugging. Now, I love it. Be a hugger.  A hug is a mutual act of love and affection that induces feelings of comfort, contentment and security.  Hugs are one of the must beautifully human things we can do. 

What can you contribute to the “Gift Economy”

Free markets are one of the benefits of the bumpy economy wherein people figured out ways to liven in cooperation. It is one of my absolute favorite examples of a gift economy, where people come together with items to give away or share. A free market can move around freely and is a lot easier to realize than a free box. The Really Really Free Market (www.reallyreally free.org) is a great prototype. It is a pure gift economy where no money changes hands. Participants simply bring their offerings and display them communally.

People also bring their expertise and talents to share: lawyers, musicians, jugglers, gardeners, ecologists, hairdressers, tarot readers, and cookie bakers are all there enjoying this unique marketplace. The free market constitutes an entirely different economic system that can provide as much diversity as the market economy, and for free!

The Really Really Free Market website lists 34 regular free markets happening in states across the US and another 10 or so worldwide in places like Perth, Australia. Yours could be the next.

And Don’t Forget the Senseless Acts of Beauty!

Ann Herbert, the poet artist who inspired Random Acts of Kindness, also implored us to add prettiness to the world.  There are so many ways to do this, plant flowers, pick up trash, and paint a lovely mural for the entire neighborhood’s pleasure. 

What beauty can you bring to the world

Be a Fixer-Upper

Did you know weeding is good therapy?

Assist seniors near you with tasks like raking, shoveling, or doing minor home repairs through Volunteers of America’s Safety of Seniors Handyman Program (voa.org). I pull my 98 year-old neighbor’s weeds and it is good exercise for me, beautifies the neighborhood and she appreciates the weekly attention she and her yard enjoy!

No strings attached

Write down the things that someone has given you, no strings attached, for which you are grateful. It can be an old sofa, some sound advice, or a lift to the airport. Now list ten things that you would like to give someone yourself, and see how many of those things you can cross off in a week.

Examples:

Drive a friend to the airport

Carry groceries for an elder to their car

Baby-sit for a relative

Buy a friend a cup of coffee

Volunteer at a soup kitchen