Planet Awareness

Consider our Earth when you make choices for your day.

Every day is full of choices. You won’t be perfect, but make it a habit to become aware! Our air, water, wildlife, and all living things thank you.

Below is from The Carbon Almanac:

Salvador Dalí once said, “Have no fear of perfection—you’ll never reach it.”

He wasn’t talking about the environment. But he could have been.

Somewhere along the way, the idea that if we’re going to care about the planet, we have to do it right. The right purchase. The right diet. The right commute. And if we can’t be sure we’re doing it right, a strange kind of paralysis sets in where it seems it is better to do nothing than to do something imperfectly and get it “wrong.”

Waiting for the perfect option is a very effective way to never act at all. And the perfect option doesn’t exist as every decision has trade-offs. 

So if we can’t make the perfect choice, then we should be looking for the next best choice. The choice that we don’t make on autopilot. When we pause to weigh the planet in a decision, we’re not just making one choice. We’re practicing a habit of attention. And that habit doesn’t stay contained to the one decision in front of us. It grows. The more often we consciously factor in impact, the more naturally it shows up in the next decision, and the one after that. Awareness builds on itself in a way that a single “perfect” decision never could.

The real question isn’t “did I make the perfect choice?” It’s simpler than that: “did I include the impact on the environment in my thinking?”

The more we do that, the better we will become at making the next best choice.

Picture of Lake Superior

Clean water and clean air depend on every day good choices.

February Challenges

The best part of life is not just surviving, but thriving with passion and compassion and humor and style and generosity and kindness.”
— Maya Angelou

red heart
Listen to people, smile and connect

Happy February, the days are longer, it will warm up this month and the celebration of Valentines Day! It is exciting that after almost a year some schools are going back to in-person learning. The challenge of many this month is to get vaccinated from COVID, and I wish you luck!

February is also important for Black History Month. How can we all work for a more just and equitable world?

The Action For Happiness calendar follows with ideas to challenge you to stay connected. Lets all renew some friendships, and challenge ourselves to spend more healthy time outside.

February
Make February a good month, and live it with passion!

Friday Fun

“You’re braver than you believe, stronger than you seem and smarter than you think.”
—Christopher Robin ( sidewalk chalk work on my street)

butterfly
Can you find a butterfly?

Today have fun outside. Yesterday on my walk I saw an eagle sitting in its nest, a beautiful mourning cloak butterfly, and heard a grouse drumming its wings. Many of us are using nature to help us get through this coronavirus crisis. How can you more engage more with the outside? How about a scavenger hunt? Look for sidewalk art, a butterfly, a beautiful tree. Look for blooming flowers, a bird building a nest, an interesting cloud, or something that surprises you? How many new things in nature can you discover? Please have fun.

Bald Eagle
I saw an eagle sitting on their nest

The Daily Good suggests you take pictures of what you observe? Are you taking pictures of what you’re seeing around you? For today’s Daily Good, we invite you to take and share a picture with someone; you can even share it with a lot of someones by tagging it #TheDailyGood2020 on social media.