Cheryl Leutjen, author of Love Earth Now, has written a new blog post on a time when she changed her own perspective on a task she once disliked.
Chopping, chopping, chopping, I get so tired of chopping vegetables that somedays I fantasize about walking out the kitchen door and never looking back. Just get in my car and subsist on whatever’s served at the nearest drive-through. Only my lofty ideals about supporting small farms, feeding pesticide-free food to my family and reducing plastic waste keep me at my station.
Cursing. But here.
Okay, I would not actually like a fast-food-only diet. A farm-to-table feast is more my fantasy. It’s just the work of it all that gets me down. I confess I’ve languished with longing in the bagged veggies aisle at the grocery store. Drooled over the “pre-washed” lettuce in ReadyPaks. Salivated over the baby carrots bagged in plastic. Then I remember the crisp freshness of the veggies in my CSA box, and I turn my cart toward the ready-baked bread aisle. Because not even a pandemic can fix my lack of bread-baking skills.
I remind myself of all this as I face down my whiny self complaining about all the veggie washing and chopping, chopping, chopping. Then an annoyingly astute insight pops in: “This is me, doing the Work. Walking all the talk, talk, talk.
Because I’ve been known to rant now and then about doing more to save the climate and ecosystems that sustain us. And that small things, done with love, matter. In fact, I wrote in Love Earth Now:
“All that is born of our love, hope, caring, intuition, faith, imagination, and plain old wishing for something better matters to Earth, to our beloveds, to our communities, to Nature, to our own hearts like glazed donuts matter to Homer Simpson.”
Everything shifts. I’m standing in a field of hard-working farmworkers not sick from pesticides. I’m on a boat with sea turtles frolicking in an ocean free of plastic. I’m protesting GMOs outside Monsanto offices.
I’m not chopping carrots anymore. I’m caring for our one Earth and all her children in my own, yes, small and loving ways. Excuse me. The Love Earth Now celery is next.
love earth now
The Power of Doing One Thing Every Day
What can you do for the environment? Do you find yourself wondering what on Earth you can do about the serious environmental challenges we face today? Do you worry there’s nothing any one person can do that will make a difference? Most people say they would like to do something to make the world a better place, but they just don’t believe they have the time, energy, money or power to do anything that will make a real difference. Are you willing to devote 20 minutes a week to find out? Environmental activist Cheryl Leutjen has the planet’s back and is betting you do too. Her powerful book of inspired ideas and eco-mindfulness calls upon us all to Love Earth Now.