Green Vomit

Bellbottoms to Barbies. Bicycling to the recycling center. And never litter. These ideas were incorporated into my childhood. Whether I got my sister's hand me downs or teachings from my parents on how to reuse items not limited to cardboard and grocery store plastic bags. My parents also had a vegetable garden and a rather large outdoor compost pile. Never thinking of themselves as hippies or tree huggers; just folks trying make ends meet from all directions. It worked and was instilled in me, but somewhere along the way it occurred to me that it wasn't normal for all. In fact, quite the opposite.

(Chicago's City Hall Rooftop Garden 2010)

For the last three years, I have gradually, but actively been moving back or towards those practices from my childhood into adult life while spreading conservation as I grow. I still get lazy and don't recycle everything, so picking the battles is a best practice and wards off being overwhelmed. My next course will be in reducing consumption. One of my greatest challenges is how much I consume. Luckily, I have maintained the same weight for the last year or so, but this is not a weight loss blog. What conservation education has taught me through osmosis is that by cutting back, the waste and weight (in more ways than 1) will begin to reduce at the same time.

Whether it's what I'm working on, what others are working on, events/conferences (but probably not all) local and not, people in the field, jobs in the field and so much more. I will work to blog every day. My commitment level sometimes drifts, but hasn't with conservation, so I hope I can consistently bring good material to educate, entertain, and offer simple ways to begin your own way of contributing to the well being of our Earth.