Do you have more than one iron in the fire. Or just a whole bunch of different parts spinning independently. Why do we always try to pigeon-hole people when the edges are so often blurred.
Why do we have to be one kind of person. Because I am passionate about sustainability an living lightly on this good earth. But I am more too.
How to explain this – sometimes it is hard to put a thought into words – you know what I mean?
Its all about branding really. The talk is that we should find a brand and stick with it. For me this would be environmentally sustainable practices – in that; I help humans design a lifestyle that enables and supports habits and systems that protect and nurture their own environment.
So I bang on at my other platforms about plastic free and buy local and how to do without single use paper, etc. When in fact everyone comes at their contribution to a healthy planet from a different angle. Here are five suggestions for the different genres that all work together:
- Clean-Up humans (e.g. work to keep the beaches clean)
- Preventative personality (e.g. don’t buy stuff if it is in a ton of plastic packaging)
- Frugal people (e.g. Not interested in wasteful luxury goods, prefer to live lightly)
- Co-Pay individuals (e.g. Turn all the lights out today because they bought water in a plastic bottle yesterday or donate to a company that is doing the stuff).
- Path of least resistance humans ( e.g. Will do the other stuff as often as I can but I am not giving up wine in single use bottles!).
Which of these sound like you? Can you think of any more?
And – to be fair – I am all of them. Sometimes all together or separately. I can sustain that. I can be any of these people at any given minute though I lean into prevention. I am so much more than a guide for sustainable homes. We all are more than our blogging brand. We all have a lot going on. Sometimes we feel strong enough to do all the stuff – other times we just want to go to bed with a book.
And other times I just want to write my stories or play with pigs. Or cook. I feel like cooking today.
It is wonderful that we can all embrace our eclecticness. (is that a word?). Especially here in our safe space. Do you think we perpetuate anxiety when we do not embrace our diverse personalities and dare I say it – impulses? Or when we try to jam our selves into the box of societies divining, stick with our brand and stay there so that we are recognisable to a society trained to see in one social media dimension?.
Robins nest. One of these days I am going to look in there and they will be all gone. Baby birds grow so fast.
This is a shot of the field that the cows are in. This field is soft with all the long grass. No bare patches. This is a great field for water retention and soil health. The other fields are too short yet and not growing fast, (I hope we do get the rain today), so we are still feeding out hay. If this summer is as hot and dry as I hope it will NOT be, we will only get one good growing window. And that is now. So the cows are laying about in this side field eating really good alfalfa hay.
Speaking of hay – we will be cutting hay soon. It is May after all. That should bring the rain on.
The chickens are doing a little housekeeping in the old pig field. There is seed being thrown in there but I have to go shopping and buy the pumpkin seeds, once they are all sown, I will have to attempt to lock the chickens back out of this little space. But some seeds always survive.
About the same weather today as yesterday but cloudy. We are planting more tomatoes today in anticipation of some rain. As you can see there is a 100% chance of rain. Our perfect weather.
I hope you have a great day!
Cecilia
PS Speaking of me breaking out off brand:
My TKG PODCAST today will be from August 2011. I wonder what happened during that month? OH! You know what I found? TWO excellent stories, as well as some recipes. I will read them for you! JOIN HERE the podcasts are FREE for the month of MAY. Then $5 dollars (minimum) a month for two podcasts a week. Not bad right? Some weekend podcasting for you. If you like them – share them. Love it!
The Kitchen's Garden 
25 responses to “Are you the sum of your parts? Or a blossom of unpredictable wildness.”
When I was chef of that restaurant in Calella 3 years ago, I was buying 5 litre boxes of organic wine for €7.50. Alcohol is not heavily taxed in Spain. One can buy a drinkable bottle of wine for €3 and a litre of cooking wine for €1. There are huge bins on most streets for recycling glass, paper, plastic, etc. Better still, one can take an empty bottle to the bodega and they will fill it up for you …and they let you taste the wines first!
Yes! Taking a bottle back to be refilled would suit me fine! I love that idea!
It’s eco friendly and cheaper!
I’m envious of your robin. My robin has abandoned her nest. I don’t know why. But it makes me sad.
Oh that is sad/ I wonder what happened to her. Being a wild bird is a dangerous pursuit!
I think it wasn’t convenient enough for her. I saw a sparrow examining the property but he flew off.
I think so many of us are doing the best we can, and making some important steps. Right now, I’m focusing a lot on food waste, not just in the homes but in the big picture, farms, transportation, grocery stores, etc.
I agree C, I am a mix of all the people on your list with Frugal being on top and Co-pay a close second I think. There are those days though that I embrace the path of least resistance and thanks to you I do not beat myself up for it- just try to be mindful and go back to a greater co-pay style.
I write for another blog alongside my personal one and there are challenges there when I don’t want to be the person that blog needs me to be. It is not my nature always and so sometimes I feel I am playing a game trying to shift and adjust. I like the challenge, I am just not comfortable always in that role.
Anyway, in other news- my bird seed garden was chopped down yesterday by the gardeners who come through weekly to mow our shared lawn. I was told when I moved in here that the beds in front of our apartments were ours alone and would not be touched rather they looked messy or lovely. I now have stubs of millet and sunflower stalks- some of which had been 2-3 leaf joints tall. I was devastated when I saw all that green gone. I must watch for the mowers and weed whackers next week and admonish them to never come near my beds again as I was growing lovely grass on purpose.
That is beyond miserable. You must have been so sad when you saw those little stubs of burgeoning wild garden. Let’s hope some of it comes back! Then make a do not disturb sign. Is it too late to resow the sunflowers?
Yes, a sign is in the works before they come next week. The sunflowers were simply in with the bird seed so I have already tossed more out- we shall see what happens.
Make sure the sign is in Spanish too. I ran into that problem in California. They kept trimming my bushes back! And spraying with round up. Made me so mad.
I have a character who appears in short ditties, who attends writing classes as a beginner, and whose instructor tells her she writes very well about food (abundance of it) and her name is Word Blossom; wrote funny piece about her; hugs and love
Word Blossom!! I love that!
oh my- we all should be as thoughtful as you! Kudos!
You are!!
Live mindfully…
Yes!! That is it! Thank you Henrietta!
I’m happily an unpredictable blossom
Such a happy position to take!!
I’m a bit of everything… influenced by my past, present, future and likeminded people such as yourself. I have no brand. But if in turn what I do and share creates even incremental change then we are making a difference. It’s why I’m always happy to have a chat about meaningful stuff (it’s become apparent I don’t do small talk), give something worthwhile go, and other than my personal Facebook, my social media is public… we never know who we touch and its ripple effect. This is what keeps me going when I think I am just one person living my small life in an out of the way country village…
Is there maybe another category called Users of What Is? People who give second, third and beyond lives to Stuff that already exist? Of course it’s better to prevent new Stuff coming into existence, but if there’s Stuff already around, I do feel it’s helpful to extend its life, or turn it into something else. Or is that already covered by one of your categories?
That is a very good point Kate. A great addition. And so obvious too. How would we label that? Let’s think
Make Do and Menders? Improvisers?
Hmm/ yes. I like Menders. That says a lot. I will get this on my list. Thank you Kate.
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