Little Green Ways has always tried to keep positive and proactive, but keeping up the vibe can feel difficult when the news gets you down. As well as being an ecobrick maker, trainer and advocate, I obviously write this blog. On top of that I have a young family and juggle full time working hours running my own business. When opportunities arise which involve blocking out a day of my schedule it can feel hard, and almost selfish to fit that into my life. Especially with that devil of ecogrief on my shoulder whispering sweet nothings into my ear.
We were invited to an event celebrating 10 years of Friends of Wemyss Bay station group. We had a stall representing both our local clean up group Skelmorlie & Wemyss Bay Cleanup Crew and Ecobricks: North Ayrshire to Glasgow, Scotland. Of course, I said yes but as the event drew nearer I was finding it hard to feel entirely positive. How would I run a stall like this when part of me was struggling to be in that energised, ready for action space?! I was down, #ecogrief had a hold, there had been too much bad environmental news and I couldn’t get my head around it.
Our stall was so busy I barely had time to think, the event all ran day and my voice has literally seized from all of the talking! But also my heart had changed. As I spoke about the ecobrick solution and bounced off all the attendees I could feel my spirit lifting. It was so very heartening to speak to so many people who were, like us, just totally ready to see the change in how we do things and happy to hear about ways to reduce waste in the environment. With all these people so engaged and ready to take action maybe we can change the world? Starting with ecobricks!
The general awareness is much greater than I’ve been encountering up until now. The number of people completely knowledgable about the issues surrounding plastic and waste was tremendous and inspiring! The number of people wanting to get involved in ecobricks, or wanting to share the information with their own loved ones made it all worthwhile.
What goes down must come up – and being up is the best way to start improving things for us all!
The ripple effect
Just as I was packing up I was approached by someone who had seen a newspaper article written for our local newspaper after someone had seen my first post on Little Green Ways about ecobricks. They had been inspired and had since introduced ecobricks to their family and their Beaver and Cub groups. I wonder just how much that one article in the local paper has made a difference? How many people are now thinking about their plastic consumption as a result of that one article?!
The ecobrick movement is a powerful catalyst to change, once people understand the issues they ARE motivated to change, and that one chance encounter can start a ripple effect. This was just the tonic I needed to realise all this time I spend on the “eco” stuff actually does affect and help people be greener, who knows how far those ripples go!
Keep on, keeping on
So I WILL keep on keeping on, with ecobricks, with little green ways and with the only way forward – the GREEN WAY! Damn the devil on my shoulder, I’ll just keen on swimming, sometimes against the tide, and just hope I can keep on making those wee ripples and hoping I can surf past the bad news waves.
