Currency

I promised I would be really honest and open in this blog...there isn't much of a point in writing it if I'm not. While driving to work today, I was thinking about how there are only a few things that really hold value....honesty and forgiveness are right at the top of the list. I think love is an obvious choice, but people call a lot of different things "love," so I'm not sure it is all that hard to find or give or exchange some version or form of it. I'm almost thinking of these abstract words as concrete currencies. True honesty and forgiveness are much harder to come by & are valuable currency that can be exchanged, given and received. I've always made it a point to be a very honest person, but I've had a lot of deception pass through in my life in the past 5 years or so....in some cases in extreme forms. I'm trying to figure out what that is all about, why those patterns exist & how I might change them and start receiving more honesty without becoming distrusting or skeptical.

Of course, I'd like for every post to be only empowering, uplifting, positive, but that would only be about 9/10ths of the truth. Most days I'm really happy and positive about life. Today I got home from work, took a nap, and woke up feeling really really lonely. At the same time, I don't feel motivated to go out and spend time with people either. I think there is something to be said for not avoiding nights like this....sometimes you have to just sit through them and be uncomfortable. Maybe it is in those moments when real growth is taking place? I don't know. I'm just trying to be gentle with myself.

(Image above is a photo I took on my friend's boat about a month ago.)

Heck Yes!

Go here to see more awesome prints by this artist.

There is nothing that cannot happen....

As of January, the pace of my life drastically changed. I sold the East Nashville Green Wagon as a franchise. After a minor detour, due to an unhappy appendix in January, I started thinking about what direction I wanted to take the business in next. I have been working with several people in other states on opening their own Green Wagon locations in their communities, but I've also been feeling this pull towards a more global project. I've spent the past four years helping educate, empower, and provide opportunities for individuals to make environmentally-responsible choices in their daily lives in Tucson and then Nashville. The little decisions people make really do add up. I know that, and I don't ever want to downplay that, but guess I started feeling like I've been so focused on the micro-level....talking to people about what goes in their recycling bin, water conservation, the benefits of using an all natural laundry detergent, the benefits of buying in bulk, buying local, driving a car that runs on alternative fuels....that it had been too long since I had zoomed out and looked at the bigger picture.

I want to see more of this planet that I'm so passionate about helping preserve. I want to find out what other individuals are doing on a grassroots level in other communities all over the world & tell their stories, struggles, triumphs. I want to spend time volunteering beside them for their causes, and really learn about the environmental issues their countries are facing. I'd love to write a book and film a lot of the project/interviews as well. Maybe the film could be used for a documentary at some point? I'm actually a fairly shy person, but not when it comes to reaching towards something I want to achieve. No one is going to knock on my front door & say, "Here is a list of environmentalists to go talk to and good quality video equipment. Oh, and here is a paid plane ticket around the world and money for food. Have fun!" I think amazing opportunities definitely involve luck and grace, but it is mainly about putting yourself in the path of an opportunity.

Even though being able to take a trip around the world to work on this project sounds like the most logistically and financially impossible thing to have happen in my life right now, it definitely isn't going to happen if I don't try. So, about a week ago, I started digging online and finding websites that had links to different environmental groups around the world. I started sending out dozens of emails, asking people if they would be interested in allowing me into their lives and communities as a part of the project. I didn't know if I would hear anything back at all. Days passed & nothing. Then the emails started slowly filtering in. So far, I have some very excited new friends in the UK, South Africa & Sri Lanka who are asking how quickly can I get there to document their efforts. I have NO idea how I will come up with the money to make any of this happen, but I feel like it has at least been set in motion now. It isn't just a thought in my brain anymore. It is taking form.

(Image above is from this etsy shop. I'm kind of obsessed with several of their prints: http://www.etsy.com/listing/59974146/print-there-is-nothing-that-cannot)