This may be my most serious blog post yet

When I started my blog in July of last year, it was mostly centred on being a conscientious human (you can view my very first blog post here). I view blogging as a way to document the ups and down of an aspiring decent human, doing (mostly) good stuff. I consider it a way of leaving a legacy (and flexing my creative muscle), and perhaps only a handful of people will ever read my humble blog, but it’s a legacy none-the-less.

I feel as though I’ve completed a full circle since its inception (an existential crisis maybe?). What started out with the best of intentions, kinda veered off track as I found myself trying to make sense of, and comprehend the world I now find myself in? Following the traumatising (Aussie) bushfires that ravaged too close to home, a global pandemic, my precious Nan going into a nursing home as the virus took off, my Dad having a heart attack, (amongst several other life changing events) it was disbelief, confusion, sadness & overwhelm on repeat. How can one ‘do’ anything in a state of perplex?

I view my blog beginnings as really quite naive too; I didn’t fully grasp how important being a good and empathetic human truly was (like right to the core realise). Lately though I’ve been digging deep, as best I know how anyway, it’s an ever evolving process right? I’ve been watching the shows (hello David Attenboroughs, A Life on Our Planet), reading the books (hello This One Wild & Precious Life by Sarah Wilson), following the right movers and shakers (in a social media sense, not the stalker-y kind). I have come to realise it’s not just a ‘nice’ thing to live conscientiously, it’s not a fun little hobby, or something one does for praise or martyrdom, it is IMPERATIVE. My life, (our lives) literally depend on it. No bloody exaggeration.

I can no longer ignore the enormity of what we are faced with in regards to this generous, deteriorating planet we inhabit. Frankly, she should have evicted us when we made a hole in her ozone layer back in the 80's! We as a human race must be present, fully fucking woke, stop taking for granted, stop putting profit before what is right, stop denying, stop debating and just GET ON WITH THE JOB ALREADY!! (as of yesterday!).

'Just do everything you can. Don't stop. Don't get caught up in the granular fights and that dastardly fear-guilt-anger-despair-overwhelm cycle. Don't worry how others are doing their everything. Just keep doing yours and then doing some more' - Sarah Wilson

At times throughout 2020 I have felt paralysed, a normal reaction to fear-based thinking I’m guessing? I have come to realise (via aforementioned full-circle) though that this way of being doesn’t equate to a whole lot of actual ‘doing’. As frightened as I may be, I must soldier on, I must walk the walk, and with my privilege as a white woman in the western world, do absolutely everything possible to do better.

So what am I doing? How have I stepped up? I thought I would share what I have done, and my list of yet-to-do’s. I will continue to share as I work my way through my list, and what I add/learn along the way. (please note, some of these are bigger changes and some only small, my thinking is any change for the better is a welcome one).

DONE

· Switched electricity providers. I don’t have a budget to install solar yet so this was the next best thing I could think to do. I visited Green Electricity Guide website, an independently curated list of Australian electricity suppliers. Each company is rated on things like emissions, carbon offsets, fossil fuels and transparency. I chose Powershop, the switch takes a few weeks. I will report back on how it all works out.

· Supporting women’s education in developing countries through the One Girl foundation. One Girl raises funds to support the education of young girls in both Sierra Leone and Uganda. See their Mission Statement below. I have opted to donate monthly whilst I can afford to do so.

One Girl Mission Statement

YET-TO-DO

· Start a compost. This has been on my list for a while, although we don’t have a lot of food waste with chickens and dogs, I still feel we don’t utilise our food waste as best we can; particularly now my gardens are well established.

· Switch banks (plus do more research about potentially switching superannuation providers). This took some deliberation as I switched to ING after reading Barefoot Investor only a few years back (as did half of all Australians). ING unfortunately don’t fare well environment wise, and reportedly support fossil fuel companies. A good website to see how your bank (and super fund) stacks up is Market Forces. It's a pain in the arse making the switch, but putting tasks like this in the to-hard basket is no longer an option. Big girl panties are up, and I'm ready to get going.

· Get better organised to collect food waste and recycle when caravanning. When we camp in a holiday park we do some recycling of glass and cans etc., however there is definitely room for improvement. I hate throwing food waste in the bin, for shorter trips I hope to collect food waste for our future compost, and for places with no recycling facilities, I would like to have the capacity to store recyclables to bring home to go in household waste collection.

· Set a 'buy less crap' challenge for myself. The idea of living with less and purchasing less is very appealing to me, and I'm up for a meaningful challenge from time to time. I'm not a big spender at the best of times but making do, buying secondhand or just the simple philosophy of going without seem like novel ideas in these modern times of more is more. I've been inspired by Sarah Wilson in this regard, not sure I could condense my belongings down to a suitcase or two worth as she has, but I'm up for seeing how this challenge can push me to think outside the over-consumption box.

· Plant trees! We live on a block of land that is mostly native bush, and we plan on keeping it that way. There's a few spots we'd like to plant more natives to attract bird life and bees. We are acutely aware of the potential fire danger living this lifestyle, however after the year that has just been, we have our fire plan and protection system well and truly nutted out, and we have also upped our insurance!! It's the risk we take to live in paradise.

I find it can be pretty overwhelming knowing where to start when faced with the 'yeah, but what can I do?' dilemma. That's why I've created a list of resources, that I have personally found extremely helpful in my quest to do more good stuff for our mother of all the mothers. You can access it below, I will be adding and updating as I continue to navigate this windy path. And if you have suggestions, I'm all ears. We are after-all, in this together.

Thanks for reading.

xx Kara

start somewhere.pdf

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