Less Impact Progress

Last week, I posted a blog about a book and documentary that I read by Colin Beavan. His blog, book, and documentary all titled "No Impact Man." I am truly inspired by this man. His promise to live one year with no impact made me think that I could do even more to reduce my impact. I sometimes feel overwhelmed because I see so many people living without any regard to for the earth. I try not to be judgemental, but it is hard not to care. We are mistreating this gift from God. How can we be ok with destroying a precious gift?

This just means that I have to do more, I have to make less of an impact. I don't see myself living no impact any time soon, but I can reduce my impact. I can move forward by making more permanent changes.

When I think about the decisions I make each day. Most of them seem completely harmless...until I think further.

In my last blog post, I promised to reduce the amount of time that the TV was on at our home. I identified several times throughout the day that we could turn off the TV. They were: while getting ready in the morning, while cooking, while cleaning, and while on the internet. The first day was rough. I forgot about my promise several times on day one, but by day two I was excited. I got ready without the use of TV, I came home and cooked without watching TV, and went on the internet with the TV off. This past weekend I cleaned a bit and the TV was off the whole time.

Week one has gone well. We still need some improvement, but John and I both feel that these are changes that we make permanent. Our TV was off for 5-8 hours where, in the past, it would have been on for no reason. Our power bills are already low ($30 or less and our home is over 2,000 square feet) but, I am excited to see if this has any impact on future bills. And of course, I am excited about the reduction in our impact on the earth!

I want to move onto some of the other ideas that I have, but I think we need to stay here for a while. I hope for this to be a lifelong change and there is no need to rush from this to something else. I would like to try one more week before I move on to more. Colin and his family dove in to each new change, but I think we need to take a more gradual approach. For us, I think it is more likely to stick.