Treading lightly on the earth
Sunday, April 24th, 2005Dear friends,
Last April 21, we celebrated Earth Day. Some of you might have gone to the beach, or went up the mountains to commune with Mother Nature, or planted a tree, etc. But the thing is, we should not only celebrate Earth Day one day in a year, but try our best to celebrate it every single day. It doesn’t take much to do this, and the simple lifestyle changes we can make can contribute a lot. For example, if every one of us used one less plastic bag every time we go to the department store or grocery store, that would mean a lot of bags that didn’t wind up in the landfill, or in the ocean. One less plastic bag means that there might be one less turtle who died due to suffocation because it ate a plastic bag that it mistook as a jelly fish. Other simple things we could do are:
1. Be mindful of how much water we consume in a day. Try living in an island without water for a day, and you will realize how precious is this thing that we take for granted.
2. Try to buy more fresh produce rather than processed foods. You are not only supporting your local economy, but tehre would also be less packaging wasted–and you are doing your health a favor by eating better. Buy organic produce as much as possible.
3. If you are going somewhere less than a kilometer away, walk instead of riding the tricycle. You are not only spending less money, but you are getting good exercise too. If the places you always go to are within 5 km of where you live, a bicycle is a good investment.
4. Try your best to be happy. Happy people tend to have less material things, and the less burden you have, the lighter you will feel. Our well being is determined not by how much material things we have, but by how happy we are with our lives–having good friends, a job that may not pay well but you are happy with, and being in tune with out inner self.
I wish everyone of you a great life ahead. Comments, suggestions, and reactions to what I wrote above are very welcome.
Live. Love. Be at peace with the earth. Be at peace with yourself. BE HAPPY.
Portia
