The door to a better future is not that far away. We just have to find it and courageously step in. Do we dare refuse from unnecessary buying things that get thrown out after a few days or weeks? Consumption is killing our planet, our health and is decreasing the odds for survival with just every passing year.
In our very materialistic world, there’s little space left for art and creativity, imagination and dreaming. Due to degradation of values, we are pretty much a society which has returned to bread and entertainment. Capitalism is most likely the wrong way to be. The more we produce and consume, the more we damage and destroy the nature and climate gets worse and less predictable. The nature fights back, and it’s about time we review what we do and don’t. However, is it possible to convince the consumer society that we don’t need lots of that we’ve put in our shopping cart?
The local Walmart and grocery chains have implemented practice of not giving customers any plastic shopping bags. Canada is discontinuing import and manufacture of plastic straws, utensils, plates and similar items. But look at the shelves. Everything is packed in plastic. Every smallest pack contains some or a lot of plastic. Look around in Walmart. There are so many plastic items, that discontinuing shopping bags isn’t even a drop in the ocean of plastic products and contamination of nature.
Here in Ontario, the Christmas season was very messy, numerous flights cancelled, even train couldn’t take, fallen trees stopped rail traffic. People stayed at the airport for days, not hours. We feel very happy we didn’t intend to travel this year. Well, we haven’t travelled for quite many years now. Nothing bad has happened because of that. Stay at home, enjoy cozy lights and tasty meals, silence at night, sparse winter light during the day. And it’s really fine.
We are lucky to live in a detached house surrounded by old majestic trees, lots of wild plants and grasses and there’s so much space outdoors that I can take a walk not even leaving my house. At the same time, it’s a town with everything close by. It’s great to live in a huge city, but then again living high up from the ground causes health problems. Add the air pollution and traffic jams, and it becomes quite tough way of living.
The landscape of my surroundings is quite eternal. Majestic trees disappearing in the distance by moonlight, by sunlight. By late evening, the sunset colors them pink and orange. Summer dresses everything up in fantastic greens and flowers have all colors of the rainbow. Nothing to complain about if you like I do, feel trees breathing and grasses whispering. Flowers just sing in soft voices. The fall comes, and every leaf burns with bright orange and red flames.
While we have more or fewer choices, it sometimes doesn’t work out in our favor. Well, I quite like this place, although, it has numerous shortages, and great things as well. Every year when we have to move is not a good year. Packing, moving and unpacking takes not only a few days. For me, it usually takes rather months. I am better organized now than I was in spring, but there are still unpacked boxes, naturally so.
The door to a better future and life is not that far away. It’s still within our reach, or so we believe. We’ve got to stop admiring those with thousand pairs of shoes, but start rather figuring out how everything can be recycled, refurbished, repurposed and reused. It’s also so that one can sleep only in one bed at a time, eat one meal and wear one outfit at one particular moment. The essence of our existence has been so far – grab more, get more, stack up more, have more of anything. Will it be possible to turn the reality around and make people try living with what’s necessary? That might take decades if at all.
I hope you have nature around you or at least, access to it. It’s a great cure for all kinds of illnesses. Fresh air, home-grown produce, trees for shade, path for walking. I see this world as an endless painting. I choose not to notice what doesn’t fit in it. Just for now, for a few days, let it be a flawless world with picturesque views and beauty which lives in every smallest detail of natural surroundings.
I wish everybody a saturated, successful and pleasant year! Thanks very much to all of you who commented, liked and re-blogged. All the best to each of you and everybody who reads!
Inese Poga Life School 
I agree, there is far too much plastic everywhere. At one cooperative where I shop they have started providing biodegradable plastic bags for fruits and vegetables. These bags feel different. They seem to hold items well enough. I hope they work as planned and degrade cleanly. Most everything gets reused here as many times as possible.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Here, too, they have either paper bags or replacement. But meanwhile, everything you put in the bag is enclosed in plastic. At least at our stores
LikeLiked by 1 person
That is the way most places here.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Everything is global now, especially how chain stores handle everything.
The problem is that this is not enough.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yes, Nature is balm for the soul. Beautiful post Inese. Happiness & Health to you in The New Year! ⌚🔢🕛🎊
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you very much!
I find that nature has helped me always when nothing else did. It multiplies good emotions and decreases the impact of bad ones.
Happy and successful New Year to you also!
LikeLike
We live in a world with too many people, I have now retired for a few years, and now I am 19 days away from reaching the age of seventy.
I do not even think about a future, a future that I do not know.
I will simply live a few more years, God willing , living is an adventure that ends one day, and that is clear to me, I do not know how things will be in the near future, it is enough for me to contemplate my past, to know that things will be different.
After I retired five years ago now, I returned to the town I arrived in, when I was nineteen years of age.
And where I left a family, where two of my children and an ex-wife live.
In those days there was a sign at the entrance of the town that said that the town had 39,000 inhabitants. The town fascinated me, not so much because of its beauty, but because I lived there when I was young, and full of dreams.
Now the once small, and idyllic place, has 650,000 people and there is nothing idyllic about it!
It’s just a place to live, and I have two, from my six children, and a ex-wife living here.
Dreams?
I don’t really have any dreams left, really.
I only live in the present, day to day, and I don’t even know what I’m going to have for dinner today.
Yesterday I spent it with my eldest son, who is still single, but today is the first day of the year, he will spend it with his girlfriend.
I live alone and I just take care of filling day, by day, with what I like to do, reading, and with the small tasks, and things that are necessary, to live, like buying groceries, doing laundry, keeping the house in order, prepare my meals, and two or three times a week go to the cafe in the evening, and chat with some old friends from college.
My best wishes to you, on this year that it may be prosperous and good for you, and your loved ones.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks very much!
I know it’s going to be better than the previous year because this year, we don’t have to move. Moving takes away so much time and causes so many troubles and problems.
Well, all my relatives, daughter, grandchildren, except husband are across the ocean. I haven’t met them since spring 2019 when I attended my mom’s funeral. We exchange a few words here and there. There is big time zone difference, basically when I go to sleep, they wake up. Therefore, conversations don’t happen often.
I’ve learned using my time when I am alone quite effectively. I can only imagine how much more I could write and paint and teach if there weren’t so many hours spent dishwashing, cleaning, doing laundry, shoveling snow, raking leaves and so forth. I’m at that point when I can do something 1 a day. I can let house go messy and paint. I can do laundry and not paint, that type of thing.
I think you live in a warm climate, but any place has its issues. However, winter is time when I neither do well, nor feel. I survive winter and then it’s better.
I’m not heavy on dreams either, but I set some goals for each day. I usually hope I can accomplish more, but normally I get stack with something or pain sets in, etc.
It’s good you see your family. My family is fantastic, but far away. We adapt to any circumstances there are, though.
All cities are big and get bigger, and that’s the main problem which causes pollution, absurd amounts of garbage, and eventually results in hurricanes, floods, storms, abnormal weather and makes life unpredictable and difficult. We don’t have earthquakes here, but storms and floods can be devastating.
There’s nothing wrong with living or being alone. I personally can only create something or paint something meaningful when I am alone. It’s nice, however, to have the other person, like my husband around and to know that there’s support if I need it.
Best wishes for the 2023!
LikeLiked by 1 person
It’s not easy to be human, regardless our personal circumstances, all we have it’s ourselves, and we all are solipsistic by nature encased on our own being, yes we may have relatives, wifes, friends, etc.
But we all live within the walls from our own thoughts, and feelings, our Weltanschauung, it’s unique to each of us, regardless of circumstances, and places, we live on a miriad of circumstances, each with our own dreams, joys, troubles, sorrows and burdens.
All that imply to be human, limited, and finite.
Thank you, for your best wishes, we apprecaite them.
I wish you the same to you and your loved ones, Inese.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks!
I hope your year has started out on the right foot!
All the best!
LikeLiked by 1 person