My Un-New Years Resolution — Take the Simple Living Challenge

I sleep with my smartphone.

There, I said it. My virtual life is out of control. I am powerless over my addiction to checking email, Twitter, and Facebook. Listening to podcasts while playing endless rounds of Yukon solitaire. Googling the answer to any question that happens to pop into my head at 3am. I know I’m subjecting myself to radiation, and worse, I am robbing myself of much-needed sleep by staring at a bright screen into the wee hours of the morning. I need help.

As if reading my cluttered mind just in time for New Years Resolution season, Sonya from the Kanelstrand simple living blog sent me an invitation to participate in her Simple Living Challenge beginning in February. I need this. I need it like I need a hole in my head through which I can dump out all the unnecessary crap that makes me feel overwhelmed.

Join Me!

Simple living goes hand in hand with plastic-free living.  The less stuff we buy, the less plastic we generally consume.   … Read the rest

The Cruellest Month

February 2011 has been a wicked bitch, to put it bluntly.  I spent most of this month in bed, sick as a dog.   Then finally, with my own good health just around the corner, I got the phone call that my mom had finally passed away.  She died at home last week, surrounded by most of our family, and while I didn’t get to be with her in her final hours, I’m grateful that I was able to visit last month and spend time with her.  We are all sad but also relieved that she is finally free of that cruel Alzheimer’s disease.

I didn’t have energy to blog last week, and I probably won’t blog this week.  But I’m grateful for my online family and the support that I’ve received so far on Facebook and via email from those who knew the situation.   If you are inclined to show a gesture of support, my family asks that donations be made to the Hospice of the Chesapeake, the organization that was such a comfort in the last days of my mom’s … Read the rest

An Anxious Year in a Life Without Plastic

2010 wasn’t just another plastic-free year. True, I cut my plastic waste to 2.18 pounds (60% of last year’s total and only 2% of the national average.)

But the year was really about facing another kind of challenge, one that is more personally fraught than the decision of whether to buy coffee in a disposable cup or not.  Last year, I had to find a way to live with a broken brain.

For much of 2010, I simply could not think.

Turns out I have ADD (attention deficit disorder.) But I didn’t know it until very recently. Last year, anxiety, fear, worry, and dread were ever present and available when clarity, focus, and creativity were not. I blogged a lot less than in previous years because so often the words would simply not come. Or the ideas I did have would not stay still long enough for me to organize them into coherence. Many times last year I cried, “What’s wrong with me?!” I blamed my doctor for not finding me the right m… Read the rest

Wanna Hang Out With Me?

Invite me to your party. I’ll be the one who heads straight into your kitchen, opens the cupboard, and takes out a glass to use instead of plastic. I’ll rummage through your drawers for reusable silverware. Or I’ll take out the little bamboo set I carry in my purse. Your guests will find me charming.

Bring me homemade Christmas cookies in a plastic bag, and I’ll dump them out into another container and thrust your bag back at you, making you swear to reuse it. You’ll thank me for pointing out your mistake.

Or leave me treats in a plastic Ziploc bag on my desk chair at work, and I’ll regift them to a co-worker instead of bringing them home. Maybe you’ll never find out unless you see the link to this post on Facebook.

Arrive at my parents’ house with an abundance of groceries to cook a holiday dinner, and watch how I thank you by taking pictures of all your plastic bags and containers and posting them on my blog… Read the rest