I’ve really been thinking lately about how much impact I’m having on the world and how much impact it’s having on me. It’s becoming a bigger and bigger priority of mine to be more “socially conscious”. I’m really trying to implement better practices, like eating organic food whenever I can – I think about all the chemicals we’re consuming and it’s scary! I read a really great article a couple weeks ago about what we consume. How much of our nutrition is processed and altered? How much of it is actually real, whole food? I’m trying to avoid food that has ingredients that I can’t pronounce. (Whenever I’m struggling with the progression of something, be it family relationships or consumerism, I always try to think back to the way things are “supposed” to be. The way things originated. It used to be that the farmer grew the food and the people ate the food. The money people spent on food was kept in their community. And in the winter they had no fresh produce – not everything is bad about social advancements. It’s sometimes hard for me to balance what is a good advancement and where we’ve gone too far in the name of convenience or to save money.)

I’m also thinking about how much waste we generate. I come home from a grocery trip and have 10-15 plastic sacks to contend with, not to mention that everything I purchase comes in some sort of packaging. The least I could do is start bringing home my purchases in reusable sacks.

I’ve got all these thoughts about how to live a better life floating around in my head and it’s getting a little overwhelming. I think I just need to start where I can, like eating as much whole food as I can. (And accomplishing this on a budget!) And using reusable shopping bags. I’ve knit one already, so, what? I’ve got like 9 more to go! Luckily, the pattern in the Spring Issue of Knitscene is really cool. And, I may also crochet this one – of course out of different yarn!

And maybe that’s what I should go start on right now…