Day 27- Give and It will be Given to You
/Back in March, on the second day of our journey, we were challenged to do something or to give something to someone else without expecting something in return (ie, give flowers, a note, even toilet paper). As we discussed, there is nothing more beautiful than selflessness from a kind and generous heart. With Earth Day quickly approaching, we are going to talk about giving from our heart to Mother Earth!
It is a biblical principle (and a principle of so many other world religions hold too) if we give, it will be given back to us - running over and overflowing, the amount we give will determine the amount we get back (Luke 6:38). Basically, there is no way we can over give to Mother Nature and if we give to Her, she will lovingly give us so much back!
So, let's look at how we can give out of the kind and selfless generosity of our hearts to our Mother Earth?
Step # 21 - Give to Mother Earth out of love, appreciation, kindness and selflessness
Refuse/Reduce/Reuse/Repurpose/Recycle - Refuse products that can harm you, your family or the environment. Reduce the amount of plastic we use every day. Reuse shopping bags, cardboard boxes, repurpose glass jars, old furniture or old clothes rather than throwing things away in the land fields and recycle what you can.
Shop locally at farmer’s markets - The Farmer’s Market Coalition writes - “Farmers selling at Markets minimize the amount of waste and pollution they create. Many use certified organic practices, reducing the amount of synthetic pesticides and chemicals that pollute our soil and water. A growing number are also adopting other low-impact practices, such as on-site composting, that help mitigate climate change and other environmental issues”.
Save energy- Power down - Saving energy means big power plants don’t need to generate as much electricity – and that means less climate-warming pollution from the fossil fuels used to generate it. Some energy saving ideas - unplug unused appliances, dial back the water heater, change to LED light bulbs, turn off lights and fans before you leave the house, turn off your computer or put it in sleep mode when not using it, go solar if at all possible - and there are so many more great ideas that can be found on the internet!
Create an Eco-Friendly garden - planting a tree, starting a compost pile, use a rain barrel and using less chemicals are just some ideas found in the HGTV Earthday link below.
Carpool - Ride a bike, carpool or take a bus
Eat less meat - Go meatless at least once a week - Why Would I want to do that?!?
It reduces water usage. Did you know that growing a pound of vegetables requires only 39 gallons of water compared to 1,850 gallons needed for a pound of beef?
It cuts down greenhouse gasses. The production of meat generates carbon dioxide, Methane and Nitrous Oxide – three major sources of greenhouse gas. While transporting vegetables from great distances does result in some generation of greenhouse gasses, you can reduce that even more when you commit to buying locally or regionally grown vegetables that require far less “traveling” to go from farm to table!
Lastly, Say thank you to Mother Earth every day! Remember Nature is a gift to us, be appreciative of all it has given you!
Recourses to inspire you for Earth Day:
https://greenbodylife.com/refuse-reduce-reuse-repurpose-recycle/
https://farmersmarketcoalition.org/education/farmers-markets-promote-sustainability/
https://commutingsolutions.org/what-you-can-do-to-celebrate-earth-day/
https://www.meatlessmonday.com/articles/make-every-monday-earth-day-go-meatless-monday/
