Inspired By A Way Of Life

Do it yourself pot scrubber

How do we change the world? I choose to tap into personal inspiration through simple living to affect small changes within my limited sphere of influence. Some say, though, that our small individual efforts toward environmental healing will make little to no difference overall. These naysayers propose that only top down government directives will create the meaningful changes that are sorely needed.

I don't think I am going to solve the world's problems by fashioning my own pot scrubbers out of plastic mesh produce bags. And if I never used toilet paper again I'm not going to save more than a tree or two. But this does not deter me from following the ways of thinking and living that have lead to these personal actions.

In my mind, there is no question as to whether such minute, individual actions make a difference when up against our biggest global challenges. They do.

Conducting the minutia of my life as if my decisions made a difference causes me to think about and look at the world in a different way. It leads me to question the way things are done, and whether I can improve them. It causes me to ask, "What can I do right here, right now, with what I have at hand?", even if that means making a pot scrubber from reused resources readily at hand rather than purchase a pot scrubber from the dollar store.

Thousands of years of history will reveal the dismal environmental track record of governments of all types since the beginning of civilization up to the present day. If we wait for governments to take action it will be too late. They work on an election cycle, and what we need is more like a 10,000 year plan.

Even when governments eventually come on board and legislate environmental behaviours that recognize the finite nature of our planet, it will still come down to each of us choosing to comply. It will take a blend of top down, and bottom up environmental action to address our challenges. Both individuals and governments have a responsibility to create needed changes. However, I am not waiting for government.

I am doing what I can now, and it is making a difference. How else does anything get done, except by each of us individually trying to do the right thing at the right time? That is what we are naturally inspired to do, and that is how we will collectively achieve our goal of saving the planet and ourselves. If government decides to join us, so much the better, but we are moving ahead, regardless, and it feels great.

"If you do anything with a narrow mindset, it makes you think according to a calculus of success and failure. Obviously when you are up against powerful interests, there are greater chances of failure than success. But when your work is inspired by a way of life and thinking, that process becomes a reward unto itself." - Vandana Shiva, Indian environmental activist, recipient of the Right Livelihood Award, defender of farmers