Releasing butterflies into the wild

I love butterflies and I am sure many of you do too. There is something so incredibly heartwarming about their beauty, delicacy, and tenacity. The fact that some live a mere day is also quite astounding to me, while others take incredible journeys in order to escape from colder climes as winter comes.

So it is great to learn about people who are helping to ensure that endangered butterflies are being given another chance to thrive. The Nature Conservancy is doing a fantastic job of releasing butterflies into the wild to try and boost numbers back up again. For example, in this brief video you can see Hannah Anderson, a biologist working with The Nature Conservancy, releasing the Taylor's Checkerspot butterfly into the South Puget Sound:

What I love about seeing butterflies being released into the wild is knowing that we can play an important stewardship role by intervening with a positive action that can make a big difference. My hat always goes off to the many, many people dedicated to working hard on protecting and renewing the chances of endangered species everywhere.

If you'd like to share your stories about butterflies in your garden, please leave your comments below. If you have any photos, it'd be lovely if you wished to share them too!

Where are you on a blustery day?

It's raining, the wind's howling, and even the dog wants to say inside to keep warm. Is this a good time to be outside?

I say yes... at least sometimes! Provided everyone's in good physical shape, with no colds, snuffles, or other ailments and provided it's not gale force winds, then getting outside when the weather is less than optimal is a definite must to shake off the cabin fever blues!

And I love to help show to everyone who feels distinctly otherwise that the environment is such a fun place to spend time, whatever nature's mood. Maybe it's the eager mom in me, or maybe it's just because I'm weather-stubborn, but I think it's really important that we get out there even when it's windy and a little on the chilly side. For example, we had a ball during a storm on a recent chilly and windy weekend taking a walk in the rain with all our wet gear on. Although the wind was howling and the day gray and blustery, in the spirit of embracing nature in all her forms, I decided it was worth getting out there.

There were grumbles. There were "do we have to's?" and there was even the "no I won't!" stubborn foot stamp. I won though and we had such a wonderful time despite getting wet and a little cold. Our walk showed us just how incredible nature can look when the wind howls through trees, and the rain lashes down on leaves, bushes, and the stream. The light was extraordinary and the colors were just beautiful. We didn't overdo it, and we rewarded ourselves with a hot chocolate treat in a cafe at the end of our walk - what better than that?!

Do you enjoy getting out in nature when she's not at her best, at least as far as we are concerned? (After all, the ducks don't seem so bothered!) Are there ways that you make the most of being out in nature when it's not as cheery as a sunny day? Please share your comments.

Friday Featured Friend -- Elgin Draper

I wanted to share a special person with you this week, Elgin Draper. He is my 93 year old neighbor, as sprightly and able as anyone 30 years younger than him and a great source of wisdom.

Elgin has had many roles in his life. He has been a parent, a grandparent, a great-grandparent, a teacher, a farmer, a professional, a cook, a traveler, a gardener, a singer, and many other things besides. He says that he is incredibly fortunate to have lived such an amazing life and that he expects much more to come yet!

Elgin grows a lot of his own vegetables in his year-round vegetable garden and he adores flowers. He says his garden keeps him fit and aware of what nature has to share. Elgin tells me that he understands why it is important for people to have a concept of protecting the environment but it bothers him that this has become a distinct "thing to do", apart from our daily lives. For him, nature, the environment, the seasons, and all that constitutes the "environment" are a fact of his everyday life, to be attended to, cared for, and to remain attuned to. In other words, Elgin doesn't make it into a concept or a cause, he just "is" in his environment, relying on it to sustain him and in turn, doing his best to care for the garden, the native wildlife, the trees around him.

I asked Elgin about his children and grandchildren. He has many! He tells me that it has always been a deep privilege to have known all of his children and grandchildren and that he has always treasured them for who they are, and whatever achievements they make for themselves in life. He is adamant that teaching children includes the subject of "mistakes". Elgin says "Too many people think that mistakes are terrible things. That's not true. Mistakes are simply another side of learning, another way of seeing the world. And from mistakes grow many amazing things." His worry is that by raising children to be afraid of making mistakes, we risk curtailing their creativity and teaching them to be risk averse and fearful. Instead, Elgin says that children need to learn who they are by doing, experimenting, and occasionally getting it totally wrong. In a very gracious and diplomatic way, Elgin tells me I could do with a bit more of letting go of my own fear of getting things wrong too. That touched my heart -- he is such a wise soul!

Elgin doesn't know how many "seasons" he has left but he says he's going to make the most of every season to come. He showed me his penciled plans for the spring garden (it'll be spring in New Zealand shortly) and proudly tells me that he even has some of the grandchildren coming over the help till the soil and plant. I said I'm game for pitching in too, as there's a lot of gardening wisdom for me to learn from! Thanks to Elgin for our lovely chat at the kitchen table with the hot chocolates. You're a very amazing, wise person even though I know you'll never read that here because you don't own a computer -- I'll just remember to tell you next time!

~~~~

This is to be my last featured friend. I have really, absolutely enjoyed bringing you a vast array of wonderful friends and I hope that some of them have touched your lives as they have touched mine. And dear readers, it has been a real privilege to have so many of you let me into your lives to share the goodness, kindness, enthusiasm and sheer amazingness of all that you are contributing to humanity and our planet. Keep doing the amazing things you're doing, keep on being the wonderful people you are, and I will be looking out for all of you as you continue to make this world a better place. ~ Felicity

Can you help MiniMonos?

Hello to you, MiniMonos supporter. And thank you!

MiniMonos has been growing rapidly, with more kids joining every day and more parents connecting with us about children and sustainability. We're grateful to every adult who's on this journey with us. Thank you for your comments, your emails, your Facebook "likes", and your tweets. Thank you for helping us grow, improve, and make a better, values-based virtual world for your kids!

We've just been listed on a website called Discovering Startups, which tries to find the best new companies on the Internet, and, if you're so inclined, we'd be grateful for your support there as well.

Once a company gets listed on there, people vote for their favorites, and every month the winners get a special badge to put on their websites. We've already been privileged to receive ONE HUNDRED VOTES and we are currently in the top ten for this month!

If you haven't already, and assuming you think MiniMonos is a good startup company, we'd be so grateful if you'd take a second and vote for us! It's really easy to vote—just click on the badge below and then click where it says "Vote" on the top right!

Thank you so much in advance, for voting and for making the MiniMonos community what it is. You rock!

Best bananas,

Kaila

From food garbage to food gold

 

Americans throw out nearly 30 million tons of food every year—27 million of it from supermarkets, restaurants, and convenience stores. This is 25% of all food produced.

It is always delightful to find innovative companies that take what is an enormous problem and turn it into an enormously helpful solution. Eco Scraps is one such company that I think has a bright future ahead.

Started by a Brigham Young University student concerned about the amount of food left thrown out after eating at a favorite restaurant, Utah- based Eco Scraps has been winning innovation awards in the US, and is set to revolutionize the food scrap challenge. Basically, Eco Scraps collects the food that is otherwise thrown away from local restaurants and grocery stores, and turns it into high quality soil conditioner, using a completely organic process.

Gardeners use soil conditioners to improve the soil’s nutrient content. Eco Scraps says that most of the compost-manure based amendments on the market have high organic content but low nutrient values, so this initiative is a win-win situation where our food waste is turned into something that is not only incredibly useful but has the “same nutrient values as chemical based soil amendments”. Eco Scraps says that it is offering the only soil amendment on the market that “offers the best of both worlds”.

Their wonderful new product is offered for sale at local nurseries in Utah and apparently they’re producing 60,000 pounds of compost every month and it’s selling fast. I definitely think this fantastic idea is going to catch on!

What do you think of this initiative? Do you know of anything similar? Please share your comments.

Friday Featured Friend -- Myoo Create

I’m really excited to introduce you to our Friday featured friend this week, Myoo Create (that’s “me & you” combined). Myoo Create is a new initiative with an all-embracing promise that if we're keen to collaborate, we can make a better future together. I love how this company is doing fantastic things combining sustainability-focused crowd-sourcing with brands, in order to come up with answers to sustainability challenges -- it's truly groundbreaking. In fact, Myoo Create is the first community online that is dedicated to crowd-sourcing innovative sustainability solutions, so it's got an exciting future ahead of it.

Launched in April this year, Myoo Create has quickly started making a positive difference with challenges already underway (see below). Essentially a community (kuh-Myoo-ni-tee) for environmental and social innovation, Myoo Create provides a space for people who share a passion for inspiring and co-creating a better world. It's a place where any of us can come together and apply our talents to challenges that matter, and the breadth and diversity of community are an important part of Myoo Create's philosophy.

Charlie O’Malley and Rebecca Petzel form Myoo Create's initial team. Motivated by the power of combining innovation and entrepreneurship to create lasting change for the better, they're people who are passionate about social and environmental change through collaboration. And they’re both very humble: Charlie says “I'm still learning about how change happens, but I'm excited about the contribution that Myoo Create can make. I think I have just about recovered from my education, but I still try every day to make sure I forget at least one thing I learned and to learn something different instead. As I get older, this gets easier and easier! I'm looking forward to plenty of unlearning on this Myoo Create journey.” Myoo Create’s team are wonderfully approachable and down-to-earth people, something I am totally convinced will have this project resonating with an ever-widening community for many years to come!

Rebecca explains that, as consumers, we can help increase the pace and effectiveness of change on issues such as waste, packaging, and use of energy and materials, by engaging directly with brands to suggest our ideas and innovations. In this way, sustainability comes about through what Rebecca terms "harnessing the global brain". Myoo Create facilitates the growing expectation we have as consumers that companies will listen to us and that we will to be able to interact with our favorite brands, taking an active role in the decision-making, especially when it comes to sustainability -- to bolster the point, Rebecca says that 80 percent of consumers have ideas on ways that companies can improve their sustainable practices!

Myoo Create connects organizations faced with environmental and social challenges to a community full of ideas, innovation, creativity, and solutions. It does this through the very simple process of having organizations post their environmental or social challenge with Myoo Create, along with offering a prize for the best sustainable solution.

In turn, the Myoo Create community submits suggested solutions to the challenge. The community as a whole then votes, as well as sharing thoughts and feedback on the contributions in order to ensure that the best contributions make it to the top. Once the winners are selected, the prizes are allocated and then, the solution just keeps on giving because the organization finds a great solution, the entrants and participants are rewarded for their efforts both financially, through being featured, and everyone benefits through ideas sharing and connecting. And, as Myoo Create says, “We all end up with a happier, saner planet.”

At the moment, Myoo Create is running an engaging and fun "Care to Air" design challenge with Levi's. This challenge started on June 1 and runs until July 31 (so you still have some time left to innovate!). After Levi's surveyed its supply chain, it discovered that almost 60 percent of the climate impact of a pair of jeans accumulates post purchase - hey, I'm thinking as I write this, that's when I'm washing and drying my jeans! Levi's realized that the messaging isn't only about improving its own processes but also draws in the consumer's washing and drying habits after purchase. While Levi's is doing its part to bring its carbon footprint down to zero and to build sustainability into everything it does, Levi's wants its customers to join in too. And the challenge is... to find groovy, neat, terrific, fantastic, inspiring, effective ways to dry your jeans. And given the increasing bans on clotheslines in North America (something I found very challenging when I lived there!), the best solution will be the one that combines style, sustainability and effectiveness, to overcome our very modern reticence to using natural drying approaches. So, if you've got some ideas, don't sit on them -- zip them into the Myoo Create community and you might just have the best idea awaiting discovery! (I'm going to ask my little dude what he thinks - he always has amazing creative ideas!)

My deep thanks to Rebecca Petzel of Myoo for taking the time to share her enthusiasm and information about the wonderful Myoo Create with me! You can join the community and leave your ideas, entries, and comments, as well as following Myoo Create on Twitter, or contact Rebecca or Charlie. And enter the Levi's Care to Air challenge here. And please feel free to share with us anything you're doing on Myoo Create.

Environmental education rocks

After writing my recent story about the benefits from children learning in nature, I have been clued into finding out more about what is happening to encourage children to spend time outdoors. And in my travels, I came across this wonderful video from the No Child Left Inside Coalition. (The NCLI Coalition is a national coalition of over 1600 business, health, youth, faith, recreational, environmental, and educational groups. They represent over 50 million Americans wanting environmental education as part of the school curriculum.)

I love the emphasis in this video on what outdoor learning can do benefit our children (and you can see the joy on the adult teachers' faces too!). The video makes clear links between outdoor learning and better grades, improved critical thinking, and the one all of us moms and dads love -- the best possible opportunity for children to release their pent-up energy. Most fun of all, the video clearly shows the joy children experience from learning while in nature:

I've always found learning is so much easier when I'm outdoors. I remember the glee at school when the teacher would say, "OK girls, it's a sunny day, let's read outside under the willows today". We'd all be out like a shot. The fact that half of us were distracted by grass, leaves, and digging up the soil made it all the more exciting - and interestingly, this rarely bothered the teacher who also relaxed.  Indeed, anything we did that involved learning outdoors was also such a relief, so enlivening, so "real".

And I still see it with my own child. I am one of those parents who says yes to school outings that involve natural visits (yes, even that exhausting hike up a local mountain) because, quite frankly, I love to see that glow of joy on the children's faces. I love watching them roll in the grass and yell at one another that "here comes another cow pad! Duuuuuuck!" What's also fascinating is seeing the relaxed faces of moms and dads too. We huddle in our chat groups, remarking how wonderful it is to see our children running about, yelling with joy, getting dirty, while we don't have to worry. It's that sense of release from daily care that nature instills in all people that I love most.

What are your favorite moments in nature with your children? Please share your thoughts in the comments.

Letting go of stuff

We’re not greedy, we say. It’s everyone else who is acquiring useless stuff. ~ Judith Levine

I've found that despite reading quite a number of self-help decluttering books, actually shifting stuff out of my house, out of my comfort zone, out of my life, isn’t always simple. More and more I realize how easy it is to lapse into keeping and longing for too much stuff, all the while recognizing that stuff isn’t going to change my life for the better.

So, why do we gather stuff and why do we hang on to it, often long after it has served any useful purpose? Often for me it's about emotional ties - there is the stuff people give me that I feel obliged to keep, and there is the stuff that speaks to me of good times or of times I held on and made it through despite the odds. For me, a lot of my stuff speaks to my past, a past I have often yet to make peace with. I realize that even that’s an excuse – emotional pain forming a barrier to utilizing common sense but still, it's very real.

Deep down, I also know that it’s the memory in my mind’s storage that needs dusting off the most. When I’ve learned to dissociate memories from stuff, I know I’ll find it easier to let go. Until then, I'll keep trying to spend wisely, declutter when the mood descends, and ask myself “Do I really need that?”. There will be times this doesn't work, but I'll keep working on it.

In creating a pathway to a more minimalist lifestyle, I'm going to practice:

• Acceptance that I am the sum of my relationships, my health, my dreams, my hopes, my sanity, my connections, and not the sum of what I have.

• Self-forgiveness for my inevitable moments of weakness while living in a society driven by a “stuff solution” for every problem.

• Realization that she who dies with the most toys doesn't delay the inevitable. It’s the journey that matters, not the collecting, it's the legacy of who I am, the love I have spread, that lives on, not what I owned.

So now there’s another “R” for me. Recycle, reuse, reduce, and release.

How do you let go of the "stuff" that isn't either useful or beautiful in your life? Please share your thoughts in the comments.

Friday Featured Friend -- Common Sense Media

Our Friday Featured friend for this week is an amazing organization called Common Sense Media. Melissa brought my attention to what Common Sense Media is doing and I could see immediately why she felt this wonderful organization gels totally with our mission too, so I couldn't wait to share with you what they're doing -- and it's really great stuff!

Common Sense Media was created to provide trustworthy information, education, and an independent voice as a way to help improve the experiences of kids and families participating in the world of media and technology. The growing concern that American children spend more time with media and digital activities than they do with their families or school concerned the founders of Common Sense Media -- they realized that this reality has immediate and long-term impacts on children's social, emotional and physical development. As a non-partisan, not-for-profit organization, Common Sense Media aims to keep us informed in a fair, neutral and well-researched way, to help us make choices that we feel comfortable with: "We operate strictly independently from any company, industry or political organization. We seek grants from organizations and foundations that are not affiliated with the media. We also accept sponsorships from companies that pose no conflict of interest regarding the media, and that support our goal of helping families make better media choices". This arms-length approach to the media ensures that the site is able to provide trustworthy information and tools for families. I like particularly how Common Sense Media views itself as "an independent forum for families", as that gives us back the sense of control and power over the choices we make for our family consumption of media.

The folks behind Common Sense Media are clear that media is something to be enjoyed, not to be shunned, but that it is the method by which we enjoy it that matters. They say: "Media is fun and our kids love it. We also know that kids now spend so much time absorbing its messages and images that it has become "the other parent" in their lives. We started this organization because we know families need trustworthy information to help manage their kids' media lives."  To this end, using Common Sense media is easy and enjoyable. The site provides advice for parents, reviews of media products aimed at children (movies, games, TV, books, music, and websites) and it also has a brilliant section on educational programs for parents, administrators, and teachers. There is also the very handy ability to sort through media by age, something I think is really helpful.

It's always a thrill when I find a site that gives us the tools to make the changes for ourselves, and Common Sense Media does this fantastically. And as part of this, Common Sense Media offers us (whether we're parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, teachers, etc.), the ability to provide our own reviews of media targeted at kids. I like this because it lets me know what other parents and family members think rocks for kids or is something to be avoided, and that's the sort of valuable advice that's really on my level. And kids and teens also get to review the products, so there can be an interesting divergence in likes and dislikes!

I love what Common Sense Media is doing to help us sort through the incredible mass of media information and entertainment aimed at our kids. I've joined up and I was able to tailor my account to get age-specific recommendations (a hint, I used initials as I'm not keen on giving out kids' names but that's just my personal preference; what is good is that the site allows for this, including keeping your child's age private).

It has been a pleasure to feature Common Sense Media this week as our featured Friday friend and I'd love to learn about your experiences on the usefulness of Common Sense Media in your family.

From a living treehouse on MiniMonos to a living home on Earth

Our monkeys on MiniMonos have their own living treehouses. It's a delightful part of increasing each players' awareness of living in harmony with their surrounds, and caring for a living home that forms an integral part of their enjoyment.

I love the idea of a living home. But I wasn't ready to transfer the idea from every monkey's cozy MiniMonos virtual treehouse into my real world - the thought seemed rather far-fetched.

Then I came across this amazing concept by Mitchell Joachim. He proposes that we can actually grow our own homes using "pleaching"  -- grafting trees together. He combines architecture and biology to help nature's design, to create what he calls a "Fab Tree Hab" (sounds very much like what our monkeys think of their treehouses!).

And then there are the meat houses - weird looking but fascinating blobs of "meat", which are actually from cells grown in test tubes (not from harming sentient beings). Although I was a bit grossed out by these ones (I mean, I don't see myself living in a liver!), the ideas are intriguing, and the possibilities for our mindful creativity combined with nature are totally inspiring. Anyway, you can take a peek for yourself in this short video:

I'm not sure how soon we'll be able to put in an order for our living houses in the real world. It wouldn't surprise me in the least though, if our awesome MiniMonos kids will be able to have their own living homes for real in the near future. And I'm sure they'll remember fondly their virtual living treehouse on MiniMonos, perhaps as one important seed that helped to boost their belief in their own creativity and strength of purpose for creating a beautiful future world.

I'd love to know what sort of living home you'd fancy, or if you even like these ideas. Please feel free to share your ideas and comments.