agir aujourd'hui pour mieux vivre demain (act today to live better tomorrow)

That “of the people, by the people, for the people” stuff is not just some catchphrase Thomas Jefferson created on the fridge at Monticello with Magnetic poetry. It is a battle cry, an obligation, and a way of life that we somehow forget.

I realigned a small portion of my shipping procedures and have reduced the amount of paper being used for shipping labels by 50%. It’s a small thing I did today, but one that make only fiscal issues but always environmental ones better for tomorrow.

The Starbucks Grounds For Your Garden program offers the used coffee and espresso grounds for gardeners as a top dressing or an addition to their compost. It’s high in nitrogen and since the pieces are small breaks down quickly.

Today was a major haul of coffee grounds – nearly 20 pounds. It seems some of the people who regularly take the grounds have not been doing so lately so most of these would have found their way to a landfill, hundreds of miles away.

Some of today’s grounds found themselves scattered around plants but much of it was tossed into the compost. Small actions for sure, but affect on tomorrow is much larger in so many ways.

...it feels like baby steps; but, little by little the burden of the day is lighter than it was the day before.

You know all those socks without a mate that we tend to accumulate? Over the course of lunch yesterday with a local priest who does a lot of work for the needy, my “recycled sock widow” theory was confirmed.

The church recently added a donation box to their parking lot for clothing which is then picked up by a fabric recycler. Yes, the clothing is shredded and turned into other things. In turn the church receives money which pays for things like the power for the Soup Kitchen, and the Heat for the rooms that are opened for the homeless, and the electricity for the freezers for Soup Kithen food.

So, to live better tomorrow, any of those clothes, like sock widows, or items with tears or stains, will be saved and donated to the parking lot bin. This will keep things out of landfills, continues to feed my obsession with recycling, and provide funds for the Soup Kitchen that has fed my soul in ways that I never would have imagined.

I want to scream! I want to shout! I want to punch someone out!

Seriously, I do.

The anger is building up inside of me.

All the cheap shots that are being volleyed within my country are turning the depths of my stomach into a boiling mess. If its not this group of people who are to blame, it’s that one; we don’t like this person so let’s make some racial remarks; this person is different so lets blame them for all the problems in our lives.

ARGH !

I do not know what to do with this anger. I do not know how to turn these negative feelings into a positive. Remaining silent is not the answer.

But how to I act today to live better, and allow others to live better, tomorrow?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pp7_tWcksjA

Eugène Delacroix’s La Liberté guidant le peuple has always been one of those iconic 19th Century images that resonates for many people as a pivitol moment in history when ordinary people took to the streets to affect change. And what change occurred in the revolt of July 1830 which resulted in the ousting of Charles X from power.

The revolutions of today need overthrown a government, but they must be over barricades, in a manner not unlike the barricade Marianne transversed in Liberty Leading The People.

At an early age we are taught to colour within the lines, stay within boundaries established by someone else. Those barricades and boundaries are placed in our lives by others throughout our lives, and we allow them to put them in place. Again and again. Teachers somehow think that kids who are good with their hands must not be academic, and intellectuals are better suited as dodgeball targets than team captains. Teens who wear black hoodies are bad, while adults who wear a suit to work are considered good. Like Linkin Park? Well then there is no way you can appreciate Lakme’s Flower Duet. And let’s not get into the whole ageism thing, as if experiencing poodle skirts first hand makes someone more worthy than younger generations. Who are these people we allow to tell us that we are better to be seen and not heard? Who are they to tell us that we have not earned the right to participate?

The Revolution starts today. The whole, big, ganze, tout le monde, cowabunga revolution, today. Right now.

The only way any of us can be a part of better tomorrow is by tearing down those barriers that are keeping us locked in yesterday.

The Revolution starts today!

There are times in life when we feel as if we are just drifting over empty fields – without a purpose, without direction. Our instinct tells us we should be doing more but without sore muscles or calluses we have no way to really know how many seeds we have already planted. Then, one day, green shoots appear, burst through the mud, reminding us of all of the work that we have done, and how much we will reap.

...and March is all about this…

By April, I should be well on the way to the “mieux vivre demain” bliss=)