Earth Day

I hate Earth Day.  I know that probably comes as a surprise coming from me, but I do.  The reason I hate it is because it always makes me feel so guilty.  I feel that because I try to live this green life, I should do something really big and significant on Earth Day.  I never do.  In fact, most years I forget it's Earth Day until the day has already passed.  This year was no different.  I didn't even blog about it.  I tried to just ignore it and hope it didn't make me feel guilty.  But this year, Earth Day surprised me.  Without doing a single thing different than any other day, I felt good about what I do to Save The Earth.  And it was all because of my husband.

Evan started a new job three weeks ago with GOJO. (They make Purell.)  I know that he works in HR in compensation, but   beyond that, I'm not really sure what he does at work all day.  After what he told me yesterday, I'm beginning to think that there might be a circle time and maybe even a show and tell involved, but like I said, I'm not really sure.

Since yesterday was Earth Day they went around and shared what they do to live a greener life.  (This is the part that sounds to me like they're all sitting criss-cross-applesauce on a brightly colored rug in a big circle.)  Evan said that everyone was surprised how much we do. "What did you tell them?"  I asked him over dinner- which consisted of 4 dishes from a "quick" cookbook that took me 2 hours to prepare and was barely eat  en by the kids. Cloth diapers, line drying, organic food, organic vegetable gardening, vinegar as an all purpose cleaner (this is Evan's absolute favorite thing to tell people about my greening), green personal care products.  Then they tuned him out, so he stopped the list.  I love this part, since I get tuned out by him so often.

I didn't do anything grand yesterday, but I felt like I did.  I got a pat on the back from my husband's coworkers, people I've never met and probably never will.  Sometimes it's just a little bit of encouragement that makes a big difference.  That little boost from a room full of strangers, sitting cross-legged in a circle or around a table in swivel chairs, we'll probably never really know, was what I needed to feel like what I'm doing makes a difference, not only for my family, but for the Earth.

So this week, as I work on my menu plan and write out my grocery list, I'm going to work on conquering my next big task in greening our lives--whole food eating.  I got a few cookbooks from the library and I'm feeling motivated, even after all the work I did yesterday for the kids to turn their noses up at it.  I'm going to keep cleaning with vinegar, till my garden and plant my vegetables, research every beauty product I buy, turn off the lights when I leave a room, shorten my showers and blog about it all, because every little thing I do makes a difference and a room full of strangers appreciate it.