Green Patches

Sustainable Smellies - Make Your Place

Just been leafing through another Christmas pressie, Raleigh Brigg's charmingly illustrated and handwritten guide to making your own all -natural  lotions and potions. Everything from household cleaners, bug busters, face cleansers to gardening basics is there.  Ms GP bought it for me; we're both trying to phase out sundry 'nasties' like parabens and petrochemicals in the  bathing and cosmetic areas as much as possible - with varying success. We're pleased to have found a few brands worth giving a look in the High Street as well as the health stores. Though to be honest, it still is a bit of a lottery, labour intensive: entailing much peering short-sightedly (for me at least)  at labels and to-in and fro-ing to different stores. And don't talk about expense...ouch!  For us unscientific types, figuring out these ingredients lists can be like struggling to crack a code. Not all items with long, complicated names are necessarily harmful, conversely it seems as if every five minutes somebody somewhere is putting about scare stories about something which up to now we'd thought innocuous enough. 

Not easy to judge Creatvity is needed, hence my categorisation of this post. Simplicity? Hmm, not sure about that one. 

The biggie for me at least just now is hair colouring. It's only over the last couple of years that I've been using safer  - note not 'safe' dyes; they're something I've always been wary of, but vanity will out plus Mr GP is not happy with a greying Greenpatch. However,  as these days even my health store safer veg coluring irritates my scalp, I'm wondering if the dread day has come when I'll need to go grey gracefully. Strand tests with Henna have worked out okish though horror stories about hair falling out after treatment when it comes into contact with chemicals (I've my hair waved a couple of times a year) are putting me off. And it's so fiddly! Simplicity it ain't. Plus I don't fancy  spending my   evenings with my head  wrapped in clingfilm with what smells like a decomposing compost heap on my hair.

Ah, 'vanity, all is vanity.' Now please excuse me whilst I go off and dunk my crowning glory in a gallon of strong tea..

Is your toilet down in the dumps this Valentine's? A loo-ser in love?

Tell us why your loo deserves to be with one of our loo-nely latrines, and if your proposition is the best you'll be twinned with your chosen partner - for free.

 - From Toilettwinning.org 

 

I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday...

Now, I"ve not caved in under the pressure of the pre-Christmas razmatazz.  It's simply that I just had one of those pround 'thunks,' (as one does) as I came out from under a heavy duty card writing session just now with burgeoning RSI and that ambivalent sense of weariness and (mild) guilt: (Why can't I be better organised and write them sufficiently early enough that I've time to give some proper news instead of the falsely cheery "Must write/email in the New Year?!"). 

Much as I love the dulcet tones of Wizzard (Hey, I"m a teenager of the Seventies, after all), the thought of it being Christmas Everyday is, to be frank, my idea of hell. However, in an odd way, the Hairy One has a point, (albeit maybe not exactly the point he'd intended to make). If we were to try and live each day as if it were Christmas, that is, with our focus away from all the tinsel, turkey and stuffing and focussed outwards on true peace and love of neighbour, we'd not be forced into cranking it all up artificially - and cramming it into the space of a month or less.

Three Ways of Making a Rule of Life

With Francistide and review of my TSSF Rule of Life still fresh in my mind,  here's some advice on the process applicable to anybody looking to live life more intentionally and holistically:

 

A rule is a document embodying the values which are central to your life, and the praxis which allows you to live this out with genuine integrity. 

 - Hermit Sr Laurel from notes from stillsong.

Developing a Rule of Life 13 Tips - from soulgardeners

 

and

Balancing Life by The Rule by Debra Farrington

I came across a wonderful piece of advice yesterday -  that  rule of life should not be a list of 'to do (s)' but of 'to be (s).'

Words, words, words...Over on the Franciscan Support Thread on Shipoffools posters are asking - Is it possible to make a rule of life without using them ? It's been suggested for the TSSF Principles in the past. Could you sign it? Paint, sing or dance it? Any other medium? Suggestions please...

For Franciscans I"d have thought creative ways like these would be spot on, given their sprituality and the famous "Preach the gospel. If necessary, use words," saying popularly attributed to our founder.

Granted we might have problems at annual renewal presenting them all at the altar - still I'm sure there are ways and means of getting over that one!

Francistide Blog of The Week - Creation Care Newsletter

Why Care For Creation?

Here are three reasons to interact carefully with the Creation, to nurture and preserve it

Prudence or the thoughtful care for one’s own well-being.  You breathe; so you need breathable air.  You drink, so you need potable water.  You eat, so you need nutritious food.  You see, so you need clean skies.  You can get sick, very sick with cancers, so you need a world without cancer causing chemicals.  You move through and have your being the environment, so you need to wake up to it, think about it, perceive how the changes we have made and are making could be harmful to you.  Your life comes from nature.  Protect your source. It’s just common sense.

1. Do you owe a debt to the future?  “What did the future ever do for me”? You say?  Well, it created you.  Before you were, you were in the future.  Before you were, people planted the trees that shade you, developed the grains and the animal strains that feed you, invented the clothes and the way of building houses that shelter you, kept pure the water that you must have to live each day, invented the writing that you are now reading, and learned how to teach you to read it  They preserved this  world through countless generations so it would be here for you to inhabit.  You owe them a debt, the debt of your very life; but here’s the paradox; since they are gone, you can only pay it forward, to the next generations. It is a moral obligation.

 

1. Jesus came to reconcile us to one another and to God our Creator and Sustainer Who has made us as part and parcel of the larger creation—as members of it.  We are not alone here—God made millions of other creatures and all are His children.  He is manifest in His creation—it is His work.  To be reconciled to Him we must be reconciled to his creation.  If we love Him Who made us, we must love what else He made.  If our mortal father lovingly built for us a house and garden with his own hands and we then trashed it, we could not say we loved him.  Jesus said, “Love one another as I have loved you. By this all men will know you are my disciples.”  And if we are to be reconciled to one another, we must care for that which cares for others, namely the earth and all that is in it.  If I say I care for my neighbor, then go cut down his apple trees and take the fruit for myself, I can not say I love him.  If I poison her air, use up resources she needs to live, foul his water with my landfills and radioactive dumps, how can I say I am reconciled to her?  The choice to drive a hybrid or a Hummer is not about you—it’s about other people and about your grandchildren.  God’s earth was made for us all, and for all who are yet to come, not just for those of us who are fortunate enough to live in comparative prosperity at the present moment.  - From Environmental Commission, Episcopal Diocese of Eau Claire via Franciscan Associates 

 

 

 

'Going Potty'

 

Yes,  but seriously...

 

2.6 billion people – that's 40% of the world's population – don’t have somewhere safe, clean and hygienic to go to the loo. The good news is, you can help change that by twinning your toilet!

For people in poor communities, a hole in the ground is quite literally a life saver – protecting women from the risk of attack as they find somewhere private to squat, and shielding children from preventable diarrhoeal diseases. By twinning a toilet you'll be helping those who most need it access safe sanitation, clean water and hygiene education.

 - From toiletwinning.org, a partnership between CORD and Tearfund.

 

After musing on that, I don't think I'll every grumble about Greenbelt Festival  toilets ever again! A photo of a Burundian latrine is now adorning the Greenpatch cloakroom.

I didn't quite know what category to post this entry under. I  ended  up plumping on 'lifestyle,' not without a touch of irony, given that for (to most of us here) such a piddling (no pun intended), amount can make such a difference. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Raising the roof

at what I guess I'll have to rename 'NotSoNew Church. '   There's  been great excitement and goings-ons these last few weeks as Phase One of the renewable energy project I posted about a year or so ago gets under way.

Don't Mind the Gap - Close it

Unashamedly copied from Niall Cooper's blog, by way of Pilgrimpace.  At a  tertiary discussion last weekend on homelessness, one telling remark from the visiting speaker; a volunteer at a local drop-in centre for homeless and precariously housed people, stood out for me.  When asked what she had learned from her many years work, she replied - the realisation that many  of us stand several steps only from that same fate ourselves. It doesn't take much for those things we thought secure to be swept out from under us.

 

 

“The time has come for an all-out world war against poverty. Deeply etched in the fiber of our religious tradition is the conviction that are made in the image of God…  In the final analysis, the rich must not ignore the poor because both rich and poor are tied in a single garment of destiny. We are inevitably our brothers’ keeper because of the interrelated structure of reality.”  Apt words from Martin Luther King, whose day was marked this week (17 Jan).http://niallcooper.wordpress.com/ - _edn1

The UK remains the sixth richest nation on the planet – but one increasingly characterized by inequality between rich and poor.   The total net household wealth of the richest 10% is now almost 100 times higher than that of the poorest tenth of the population – a gap higher than at any time in the past 30 years.  When the highest-paid workers, such as bankers and chief executives, are put into the equation, the division in wealth is even more stark, with individuals in the top 1% of the population each possessing total household wealth of £2.6m or more.

But more than this, inequality harms us all.  There is persuasive evidence in theSpirit Level of the “pernicious effects that inequality has on societies: eroding trust, increasing anxiety and illness, (and) encouraging excessive consumption.” Whether in relation to health or social problems; drug abuse, education, imprisonment, obesity, trust or community life, inequality harms the outcomes for everyone – not just the poorest.

As the Catholic Bishops of England and Wales said as far back as 1997: “There must come a point at which the scale of the gap between the very wealthy and those at the bottom of the range of income begins to undermine the common good.  This is the point at which society starts to be run for the benefit of the rich, not for all its members.”

Our Christian faith tells us that another world is possible…. and for this reason, Church Action on Poverty is teaming up with several of the main Christian denominations and national partner organisations – to launch a major new three year campaign, with a challenge to both to the Churches and to politicians:

Are you prepared to give, act and pray to Close the Gap between rich and poor in the UK?

The campaign will challenge both individuals and churches to sign up to specific Pledges to Give, Act or Pray to Close the Gap.  The specific target is mobilise up to 10,000 people to sign up each year to take part in actions, which will seek to make politicians and other powerholders accountable for their role in narrowing – or increasing – the gap between rich and poor.   Overall, the aim is to build a more powerful movement within the churches committed to working for long-term pro-poor change within the UK.

Look out for the launch on 31 January – timed to coincide with Poverty and Homelessness Action Week…  if you haven’t already done so, you can download all the resources you need from theAction Week website.  You can also follow the daily prayer calendar throughout the week, including video stories, prayers and ideas for action each day. Sign up at http://www.facebook.com/group.php?v=wall&gid=175376421972 or on Twitter (@phactionweek)."

 

 

Saving The Planet

photo credit: Bill Longshaw  at Free Digital Photos

If the sheer complexity of it all threatens to overwhelm you, remember the starfish principle - 'Start small.' In a meeting yesterday to discuss ways in which our love of God, neighbour and planet might be reflected in our day to day lifestyles, somebody reminded us of the site Generous.org which provides community and encouragement to enable people to begin to do just that. I was more than a bit embarrassed; I'm a signed up member of the site; however, I've not 'visited,' for ages.  Even if I have been carrying - or trying to carry out some of the actions suggested in the meantime.  Accountability can be a wonderful thing, (most of the time, anyway!).  So - remember the little boy throwing the starfish, one of thousands stranded on the seashore, back into the sea and being told it was a waste of time as what he did would make no difference. "It makes a difference to that one!" he retorted!

Silence is golden

At last!  The first episode of the  new documentary The Big Silence, which I blogged about nearly six months ago,  is set to air this Friday on BBC 2. If you live in the UK, that is. I'll be following it with interest, especially in the second programme when, we're told, the participants take part in an eight day silent retreat.

I've   returned from a similar one myself only a few weeks ago, (though mercifully, not accompanied by a camera team!). Mine, too, involved a full eight days more or less in silence; longer than I've been accustomed to before; with a new venue, also, which by its very nature involved a step further into solitude. In a retreat setting I don't have any difficulties with this, seeming to drop into the rhythm of the place quite naturally. The challenges that invariably present themselves in the quietness, however, well, that's quite another matter. They don't always appear to get any easier. Whether or not that's an indicator of greater closeness to God, is open to question. I'd hope the answer would be yes.   And, even as a 'veteran' of nearly seven years to guided retreats,  I still struggle with building those times of quietness and prayer into my daily life.     

So, my sympathies will be with the BBC retreatants and I'm sure I'll find much to reflect on and learn about from their experiences.