One of my mother’s many mottoes was, “Make your trip count.” If I was running upstairs to my bedroom, her voice would echo off the walls, “Take up the laundry, Jenny. Make your trip count!” If I was heading down the cellar (Old school Mainer’s don’t call it a basement.), I had to bring down some random items she wanted down there for storage. I would roll my eyes and follow her demands.
As it turns out, I realized she had a good point. I say and do the same thing. No surprise. The motto has found its way into my green living schemata. Her voice still rings in my head, making all my trips up and down the mountain, to and from town into some vast, greater purpose and project. It is so rare that I travel anywhere without a backpack and a cloth bag in each hand filled with random, unrelated items, making my trip count. This practice got anchored even more deeply by the reality that I live a bit up Pleasant Mountain and my cabin is accessible only by foot half the year, depending upon snow and mud season.
Making my trips count for groceries, recycling returnables and trips to the mailbox are real considerations in the name of convenience and ease.
There are big issues on our big planet beyond individual conveniences. Notice our lovely home, planet earth, from which we source everything. All that we need comes from this floating, evolving, mass of organic matter and energy. Even the artificial ingredients of life, transmuted through chemical reactions, fires and laboratory cauldrons have given birth to credit cards, the leaf rake, the fishing pole and all the trash I see on the roadways.
Great is the community effort uniting to pick up the future artifacts of our times rearing itself from underneath the receded snow and ice. Seeing the containers, drinking straws and grocery bags hanging from the tree limbs, swaying in the wind acutely reminds me of our consumption and its effect. A lovely effort, indeed, to clean up after ourselves.
Are our individual efforts enough to make a difference? According to the US government, the answer is yes. Recycling just one aluminum can reduces waste and saves enough energy to run a computer for 3 hours. Multiply that by 10 cans, 100 cans… small steps can become pretty big.
And still, is there more we could do on a broader scale that wouldn’t be too bothersome or inconvenient, and perhaps even fun? My mom points to that option and I invite you to join me in it. “Make your trip count.”
The next time you need to drive to town, hesitate and contemplate… can it wait until more errands accumulate to save multiple trips? Going to town has become a weekly event for me. I do all my errands on one trip, saving them up for the big adventure.
Benefits of making your trip count:
You get to stay home more, consuming less non-renewable resources.
You are lessening vehicle traffic and adding to foot traffic.
You can make more contact with community members.
Less carbon is being burned and released.
I tried it all on a bicycle one time and it took a whole day and most of my personal energy. So, for now, I use the gas-powered car until I find my way into something greener. Anyone want to share their Prius?
Jen Deraspe, is the founder of Nurture Through Nature, an eco-retreat center in Denmark, Maine. Jen is a certified yoga instructor, a licensed Maine guide, and a certified coach and facilitator of The Work of Byron Katie. She has been leading holistic nature retreats since 1999. www.ntnretreats.com, (207) 452-2929.