Creation Care Mom

In my day to day life, it can feel like I am doing almost nothing to move the needle on climate change. So if you feel that way, know that you are not alone.

Like most, my pressing needs to exchange my time for money (work), feed, cloth, and shelter my family, and manage the social and emotional relationships I’m embedded in, take up the majority of my time. In short, I live like most of you. I drop my kiddo at daycare and drive to work where I don’t have much decision making power. Then I’m at home planning meals, grocery shopping, cleaning and doing laundry. I solving emotional meltdowns, teaching life skills, coordinating activities with extended family, and planning my workouts around Matt’s availability. In the midst of all the LIVING, it can feel like I am not able to make a difference.

I read the headlines. I understand the science. And I know that time is ticking away. Yet the problem seems so big, and my “extra” funds and time so small.

And so I wrestle.

I sit.

I hope that some day my constraints won’t be so tight. I hope that the choices I make today will be enough. And I write here.

In the midst of living, I make different choices than others might make. I learn to cook with tofu and more ways to consume beans. If I need to buy stuff, I buy my clothes and other things secondhand for my wallet and the planet. I set my thermostat at slightly uncomfortable levels. I spend more time outside with my son, taking time to help him build the wonder and joy of nature. I tear out grass and plant a food garden, shrubs, and trees. This year I will learn to capture rainwater in barrels for irrigation so more water can stay underground and in reservoirs.

And I dream of what I could do in the years to come.

We could install solar panels and buy and EV (or 2). I could get involved with local politics and use my voice to move greater change. Redesign our landscaping to keep almost all rain on the property and/or choose to xeriscape with native plants rather than maintain much lawn. Increase our composting by being willing to collect scraps from neighbors or raise chickens as we move towards a close looped system for gardening.

All these efforts take time and resources that we don’t have today, but I hope we will have in the future. Baby steps.

All this to say that within your life everyday choices do make a difference when all our collective choices add up. Don’t give up. But if you feel like you aren’t doing enough, you aren’t alone. I think we all struggle with that discouragement on occasion. Acknowledging that we live within that tension is significant in itself.