Saying "I'm so busy, I didn't have any time" is an excuse I use on the reg. It's a terrible excuse. In fact, I find it hard to even call it an excuse, it's really just a choice. I understand that we all have to work. We have bills to pay, things we want to do that cost money, food to eat, etc. but I'm going to go out on a limb here and say no-one reading this blog post works 24 hours a day. This alone is proof that we. have. time. Saying we don't have time is saying that we don't care enough to find time.
So here's a little breakdown of small windows of time that we can choose to create to care for our environment: Morning
Afternoon
Evening
Do any of you already implement some of these? What pockets of time do you find yourself more likely to commit to? Let me know in the comments below or over on our Facebook page! - jamie
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Hi friends!
It’s been a little bit since my last CL post and that’s solely because I have been BUSY. I’m currently working an additional seasonal job and fighting off a cold which has had me spending any free time mostly just sleeping, but! I haven’t stopped my Sunday cleanup commitment, even in the nasty rain this week. I debated pushing it off to Monday and writing about the rain and a nasty cold keeping me in, but littering doesn’t stop on rainy days and this commitment isn't going to stop either. The garbage doesn’t say “hey, no one wanted to go outside today, let’s just stay right in place until a sunny day brings some friends to clean us up”. In fact, it more so says “hey, rain...wind...cloudy skies, let’s go for a ride to the closest waterway or waterway entry (sewers, drains, river beds). Then, we can get swept up with the rest of the trash and go for a lazy river ride” (Can you imagine how exhausting it is to be in my brain?). Alas, I got out of my sister's cozy car while she went into the store to get soup and got myself into the parking lot. The thing about doing cleanups is you don’t have to be on a great hike or kayaking down a river to do one. You can be WHEREVER you are at any time of day. I filled an entire GIANT Go Puff bag (which is a topic for another conversation) with trash in under 21 minutes walking up and down just half of a parking lot aisle at Walmart. Could you imagine the amount of trash that could be collected if there were five of us? Ten of us? Now imagine if all ten of us committed to cleaning up for a full hour. Woah. I can. I can imagine it because I know what groups of people can do. When individuals come together with like-minded goals, the unthinkable is possible and the unthinkable occurs. Sunday, October 27th is the last Sunday of the month. That means, I’ll have been at my Sunday cleanups for 4 weeks. Want to join me for November? Get a head start by joining me this Sunday, wherever you choose to be, and use #consciouslivingcleanup to show me what you do. With the holiday season coming up, people's lives tend to get a bit busier and it seems harder to find little pockets of windows to do cleanups, but my next post is all about the small amounts of time you can find to make a difference. Stay tuned! - jamie If any of you follow me on my personal social media pages, you may have seen that I started a new journey as a Wild Keeper with Keep Nature Wild. I’ve been doing cleanups for quite a while now, both with local communities and solo, and having the opportunity to be a Wild Keeper have given me the opportunity to create a bigger impact by sharing my cleanups with a large community of like minded people. It has also given me a place to record the impact that I’m making.
My plans for October have been to do a cleanup every Sunday, no matter where I am. This past Sunday, I went out in my local neighborhood and because I’ve always considered it to be “clean”, I was quite shocked to see just how quickly the trash bags began to fill. You'd be surprised how much garbage is located just in your "backyard". Over the last two weeks, I’ve received unexpected messages from 3 people who were inspired to reach out after seeing my posts and it nearly brought me to tears. Seeing that my impact has reached even a single person inspires me to continue what I'm doing and more so, do it more frequently and more publicly. If you have any interest in joining me for cleanups in Philadelphia, please let me know! I’d love to have you join me. So far this Sunday I've gained one new cleaner and I can't wait to see how it continues to grow. While my schedule is going to be changing quite a bit come November, I intend to continue my weekly cleanups far beyond October as they’ve already began to be therapeutic for me. I hope to get home to Jersey for a few cleanups on the beach during the holiday season. All my Jersey people, stay tuned! I'll see you in the sand. <3 - jamie Where have you been finding the most trash in your local community? I'd love to know. Head over to our Facebook page and leave me a comment. Perhaps we can plan a cleanup right there for the future! Have you ever felt overwhelmed trying to stay up to date with all the plastic-free alternatives out there? This age of social media can often leave us feeling like we're less than if we don't have the next best thing, but usually that "next best thing" is gone just as quickly as it came. Here are a few ways to reduce your plastic use without spending any money:
What are some ways you save $ while going plastic free? I'd love to hear your tips and tricks! - jamie |
AuthorJamie is a musician, avid lover of nature, and a dog momma living a more sustainable life each and every day. Archives
April 2020
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