Right after finishing my lunch at school, always a green and red salad, four crackers, a piece of fruit and cold green tea, I got out of my chair to throw away my trash. Like I have for more than 100 days of school so far this year. This has been my routine.I looked at the recycling center in my classroom for student paper scraps and over at our red wriggler worm composting bin and realized that I should be following through with what I am always telling the students. Telling them over and over about the importance of maintaining our natural resources and reducing our personal use.
When I looked at my trash, I knew there were some things that I would not be able to reuse or recycle. In the past, I had justified my choices by never using a paper napkin. I carry a handkerchief everyday. But it was the two items that I use and throw away everyday that really caught my attention. I have sent more than 100 Styrofoam cups and 100 plastic forks right into landfills and into the great big world that I am always trying to clean up.
Our family nature club, KIVA - Kids In the Valley, Adventuring!, hosts three or four park clean up days a year. I am always fussing about having to keep the parks clean and complaining about it being such a constant problem. And all along, I have been adding to the mess.
Out of sight, out of mind really does make it seem to magically disappear.
Richard Foster's book, Celebration of Discipline: the Path to Spiritual Growth chooses to point out that in our goal for simplicity, we should choose our purchases on utility and reminds us that Psalm 24:1 states
"The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof."
We can not disregard our environmental responsibility as stewards of the land. Our actions have consequences. To simplify my life and lessen my impact on the earth, tomorrow I will start carrying my own reusable fork to lunch and hereby pledge to use reusable cups for my ice tea at school. In the future that will add up to 180 less cups and 180 less plastic forks a year getting into our oceans and landfills.
I frequently visit a website for a fantastic group of folks at Restoring Eden (http://www.restoringeden.org/). There you can find a great selection of quotes and resources that can help you in your decisions as far as a call to environmental stewardship. I encourage you to visit them today.
And of course, we need music to listen to while we are web surfing...
Bruce Carroll provides a lovely cover of a Mark Heard tune for us today. The song speaks of a lost soul, floating through this earth, but I think the song could also point to the countless times we have let a temporary solution (a plastic fork) have a lasting effect on our environment. our castaways...
Link of the day...
Get connected locally and make a difference by creating less trash... http://www.cleanvalley.org/
Quote of the day...
"Taking care of creation isn’t just about saving the whales or the spotted owl (although these concerns are far more important than the skeptics would have us believe). Creation care isn’t just about reduce, reuse, recycle. And it certainly isn’t about keeping others out or exporting our own environmental problems to other countries so America can remain pristine. It is about preserving creatures and conserving wilderness, but it is also about saving neighborhoods from our waste, and improving the health and safety of children who live there."
Scott Sabin, author of Tending to Eden: Environmental Stewardship for God's People
Bible verse of the day...
"Who then is the faithful and wise servant, whom the master has put in charge of the servants in his household to give them their food at the proper time? It will be good for that servant whose master finds him doing so when he returns." - Matthew 24:45-46
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