Broadening the Cirlce

I believe that positive change happens when you do things because you really mean it.  When your entire being says “yes” to the task at hand, it is no longer work- it is a labor of love.  And when you are “working” out of love, things have to happen and change for the better.  After several years of feeling like, and being told that I should do some volunteer work, I have found a project that I am excited about volunteering my time and energy for- Back to the Sack. 

The people in this group are working together to find ways to stop, or at least lessen the amount of plastic bags that are causing so much damage to our lives, environment, world.  When I heard about this group I knew right away that I wanted to be a part of it.  I have always found it really upsetting to see the amount of bags, especially double plastic bags that people carry out of grocery stores.  My body reacts viscerally, and I have images of plastic polluting oceans and land fills at the sight.  I really want to try to stop this!

At the end of our first Back to the Sack meeting, we were asked to make it a goal to not take any plastic bags for the two weeks leading up to the second meeting.  This was a great assignment, but definitely not a challenge for me, as I almost never take bags.  It has been almost two weeks and I have certainly not taken any plastic bags.  I always carry a backpack, so I have a grocery bag with me at all times.  Since I realized that this exercise, while good, was not going to make a huge difference in the amount of bags I consumed, I thought maybe I could get the people close to me to do the same.   I spent a few days with my mother, and in the car at the start of our trip, I told her about the bag project and asked her if she wouldn’t mind not taking any bags for the 2 or 3 days that I was spending with her.  I was hoping to make a difference!  But my mother assured me that I was preaching to the choir (sometimes I forget that I was born to hippy parents in the 70s!)    And then on several other occasions in the past two weeks, I brought up the bags with friends I was with, and they, too, were already on the same page.

Since it seems that the people who I thought I might have influence over actually might be the ones who have helped me to develop the beliefs and values that I have, its time to broaden the circle.  I am hoping that with this project of Back to the Sack, we can spread the consciousness so that more and more people can make their own individual efforts to lessen the amount of plastic that they consume.  But more importantly, I really hope that, with the different talents and backgrounds of the people in the group, we can figure out how to make a big difference- show bigger corporations and politicians, or whoever makes the decisions.  We need to get those people to care about our earth, our animals, all the people, not only each individual’s family or community, so that they will see, too, that it will really be a better thing, over all, if we use less bags!