Small Steps With Hope

I just wrote an email to my MP, Candice Bergen. Write to your MP. Refer to whatever organization you trust if you're feeling uncertain about your argument. Really, no politician is unaware of the current climate emergency, so we would be wasting our time and energy to try to convince them. Let's focus on calling our leaders to ACTION! Here's what I wrote: Hello again, (I wrote "again" because I've been sending her messages for a while now!) I'm sitting in my home thinking about how I can possibly act to ensure a future for my family and our country in the face of this week's heat waves in Western Canada and the inevitability that this heat will make it's way here to Southern Manitoba. There is just no denying that these weather anomalies are caused by damage to the atmosphere by greenhouse gases! This is a climate emergency! Please, Minister Bergen, assure me that you are going to lean on the government to act swiftly and bravely for policies that ...

 It's been a crazy few weeks in my home and life and I haven't had much time to post here.  Recently life has demanded so much in one sphere that I haven't had energy or time for other things that are also critically important to me.  I'm sure you know that feeling!  So here are the options I am facing:  1. Feel constantly guilty for the things I'm neglecting (note the negative language) or 2. Acknowledge the season I'm in and accept the shift in focus.  (And to borrow a phrase from Anna in Frozen 2, "Do the next right thing.") I've been trying to choose the latter.  In seasons like this I'm so grateful for the David Suzuki Foundation and other organizations that are working hard for climate.  When my shoulder is leaning elsewhere, I'm glad to know that I can still support this incredibly important work by sending cash to these organizations so they can hire more people to do the work of conservation, lobbying the government, public awarene...

I didn't make the up the term but I love it. Citizen muscle! Annie Leonard, who is the creator of "The Story of Stuff," coined the term. She uses the image of a stick figure with two arms. One is bulky and muscly - that's our consumer arm. Our citizen arm, on the other...ahem...hand, is weak and useless. We are not used to exercising our strength as citizens to make the world a better place. We are fed the story that by doing "our part" by buying green packaged soaps and recycling it's easy to change the world. But that's not true. We need to break a sweat, exercise the citizen muscle and get to work! In my mind, the small steps we are taking are the way to begin building our citizen muscle. The more we exercise, the stronger we'll get. I'm not sure I totally understand Annie Leonard's idea, but I'm going to watch "The story of change" to gain a better understanding. Want to watch it too? If you've never heard ...

If you don't know me personally, you might not know that one of my passions is group conversation.  Yes, I love getting people together to discuss important things.  Building community energy and strength around shared interests and concerns gives me great joy!   That might sound a bit dorky, but hear me out. :) In the last few weeks I've had the honour of joining with two different groups of people for a structured conversation around climate change, how it affects our lives and how to take that knowledge into action.  These conversations are a gift from For the Love of Creation , a faith-based initiative for climate justice that is working to help people take meaningful action in the climate emergency. There are three conversation structures, designed to gather small groups of people (6-10) and help them to move forward from where they are at in terms of climate action.  These are the three conversations, from their website:  " Creation, Climate and ...

One of the things I'm grateful for as I wade into waters of climate action is that there are so many others in Canada and the world who care deeply and are working tirelessly for change.  I am always relieved that I don't have to re-invent the wheel in order to get involved.   There are so many organizations that are helping ordinary folks to lean into the big issues and put pressure on the government and big business to take the urgent action needed to reduce Canada's emissions drastically and soon. The David Suzuki Foundation is one of these.  This website is full of great information and ideas from a very trustworthy organization with a long history of helping Canadians see and love the natural world.   Please take a few minutes to follow this link and send a letter to Jonathan Wilkinson, Minister of Environment and Climate Change.   It's a small step that takes only a moment of your day and it will also build your citizen muscles!  Doub...

Maybe this will be my last post about gardening for a while, but I have to share this!   If you're interested in the idea of a Homegrown National Park and you like the idea of using the land in your care for the good of our animal cousins (I mean the animals, not your crazy human cousins!) then this guide might be helpful for you.   My dad sent this website from Birds Canada this morning and I'm so excited about it.  You can figure out what bird zone you live in and it will help you choose native plants specifically to feed your local ecosystem!  How cool is that?  Now I'm really ready to get planting! Small steps. Dirty hands and a shovel.   And hope.