Earth Day

I told someone today that Earth Day was my favourite day of the year! I think it is because there are so many opportunities to think about the planet. My first decision of the day was that I would not be driving my car today; there was some adjusting because my vegetable bin is very scant today, and it is a good day to go grocery shopping since I had no evening plans.

When I was out and about on my lunch hour travels, there was a hub of excitement and energy on our main street. Earth Day dawned with glorious blue skies, and appears to have inspired many of us. A group of bicyclists with a banner that said, "Critical Mass," rode up and down the street.

I remember Earth Day when I lived in Manitoba; each year, we made a pact to implement one new thing to help. One year, I was so delighted to find that Safeway was carrying toilet paper that was unbleached - oh,it wasn't white, it was a brown colour like hand towels in public restrooms. Seemed like a good idea to me. After some time, Safeway stopped carrying it and I haven't seen it anywhere since. It seems like a puzzlement to me. I am not sure why we need to have white toilet paper and not brown; let me assure you, it did the same job.

One year, I decided to compost. Lately I realized that I have composted for close to 20 years. Now I cannot imagine NOT composting. When I visited Bellingham last week, I was delighted to see that the housing complex where my friend BJ lives has a system that taps into the municipal composting.

And here, I have heard of compost material being picked up from restaurants and taken to a public garden.

Is public composting more prevalent than I know?

I have not decided what new practice I will start this Earth Day. I like to think of it carefully, because I would like to make sure I can carry it on.

Happy Earth Day! Here's to celebrating one very groovy place to be!