The Hiking Boot

And by that I mean, coping with the reality that the world is in…a strange place. As an environmentalist and a realist, I often have a difficult time coming to terms and living with the state of the natural world, and what we humans are (or are not) doing to take care of it. Every day I see cars burning gas, litter, habitat destruction, and what I perceive to be a general disregard for nature. Some days are better than others, some days it all really doesn’t seem so bad. Other days, I really do struggle to find the good in humanity. We as a society seem to have moved away from a wisdom based approach to living, and are instead more focused on an instant gratification based approach. We online order what we want, we go where we want, we build where we want, we destroy what we want, we ignore bad consequences for our actions choosing to focus solely on the benefits. We take the natural world for granted, assuming it will always be there for us even as we continue to pollute it, destroy it, cut it down, and pave over it. “The Economy is King. All others must bow down before it”..it is nonsense. Unfortunately I believe we will find out too late how nonsensical it all really is.

In order for me to be able to face all of this I have decided to live more of my life in service to the things I find important. Taking walks in the wild, driving less, feeding the birds, donating to conservation efforts, feeding the squirrels, buying less and being mindful of my everyday choices and how they may impact the world around me. My favourite quote, by Anne Marie Bonneau, regarding impact humanity has on the planet is “We don’t need a handful of people doing zero waste perfectly. We need millions of people doing it imperfectly.” I try my best to live that way daily. I can only hope that by leading be example, others will be inspired to do the same.