change the world, twenty minutes at a time

It has been a good long while since I last thought about this goal, much less made a conscious effort towards it. However, I came to think about it today. I found a lovely little website called Kind Over Matter It features all manner of cheerful things. I particularly liked the printable cards with positive quotes that can be left for other people to find. The site certainly got me thinking about kindness again, which I feel is central to this goal.

Connecting with friends again seems to be the first thing that team members here post about when they are returning to this goal after a while. It seems to be the basic thing we come back to. I have done some connecting with old friends over the last week. This came at just the right time for one friend. There was a death and a near-death in the family just last week and she’s due to give birth any day now. The emotional swings have been huge for her and she was grateful to know I was thinking of her. I shall be sure to go and visit after the baby is born.

Again, I’ve not been doing so well with this lately, but something happened yesterday that I wanted to write about here. It didn’t take 20 minutes. In fact it probably didn’t even take two.

My sweetheart and I went for a drive out to the national park yesterday. There’s a lovely section that is being used as a wildlife sanctuary so we took the time to go for a walk in the koala preserve. Didn’t see any koalas, but I did see a bright blue chip packet that had been tossed over a walkway bridge. It made me so incredibly angry I was speechless. Is it really so difficult to hang onto it until you find a bin?

I climbed down and retrieved it (mentally apologising to the plants I was stepping on in the process) and disposed of it in a more thoughtful manner. It really wasn’t that hard.

Then afterwards I found the sole of someone’s shoe that had been abandoned. It’s really making me think about the disposable attitude of this society. A wildlife sanctuary should not be a rubbish dump.

Orientation Week began at the university today… and you could tell. There were quite a few wanderers looking lost, many with foreign accents. Now I have a terrible reputation with giving directions; at least twice I’ve pointed people in entirely the wrong direction. But I managed to redeem myself today, much to the relief of a few newcomers to the campus.

I’m definitely finding cycles with this goal. I seem to be back at the nadir. Not to worry. I just need to refocus. With entries like melb100’s to inspire me, I’ll be on the ascent again in no time.

As will things like this I’ve found it a great blog, by the way, full of kindness and creativity. It makes me think long and hard about the kind of life I want to lead and the kind of change I want to make in the world.

It’s funny. After yesterday’s entry I seem to be back on track again.

I realised that there is one change that I made without this goal in mind, but which affects it nonetheless. I decided, as part of my Discardia celebrations, not to buy anything new except food. However, even though there was that exception, I also decided not to buy any more tea. I’m a well known tea addict and people seem to think it makes a good gift for me, so I have quite a stock (there is only so much one girl can drink on her own!). When I ran out of my green tea bags (ritually taken every morning) I switched to loose leaf. Now the only real waste is the tea leaves, which go straight in the compost!

At the bus stop this morning there were a pile of used bus tickets. Someone had obviously gone through their wallet and just dumped them on the ground. I took them to work with me and disposed of them more appropriately.

Much to my frustration, my work’s library is closed until next week. In search of a place to write during my lunch break, I ended up at the public library… and paid off my fines, so I’m all ready to become a fully fuctioning member there again. If I ever get through all the books I have piled up around here first!

It probably wasn’t 20 minutes, but I spent some time today working on my other goal

I find that New Years celebrations have hijacked me for a bit and it’s going to take some time to settle back into 2008.

I thought I’d spare the guys the gory details, but this is how I spent my 20 minutes today.

I went to the Farmers markets this morning and bought some local, organic produce for my Christmas lunch. I had a wonderful time… so different to shopping at a supermarket. A very different vibe indeed. The people are wonderfully friendly. The place I bought my eggs from had photos up of their farm and the hens they look after.

I’d love to go on a regular basis, but I just can’t bring myself to give up the one morning of the week I get to sleep in. Yet, anyway.

Apologies to everyone for spammage, but I’m cleaning out my goals today.

It occured to me that a number of my other goals could (should?) be merged into this one. So in interests of streamlining, I’m making a note of them here:

• Smile at strangers: I always had such trouble with this one. I mean really… how hard can it be?
• Be kind to the Earth: In some senses really the same as this goal.
• Do something nice for someone else every day: good intentions but not very realistic. Focusing on 20 minutes at a time is a much better idea. Perhaps in the near future I can spend 20 minutes brainstorming nice things to do for the people I know (and perhaps some I don’t)
• Connect with others: important for changing the world into a more loving place.
• perform a random act of kindness: ditto above.

Do something with my library membership