Living more lightly

It all started when we stayed in the yurt off-grid at Sarah’s place near Glastonbury (where I used to run retreats) before the summer solstice. She has been progressively moving towards sustainable living and it was so lovely to get one’s feet on the earth and switch off for 24 hours, living simply. The experience and my chat with Sarah really helped to begin a shift in mindset in the way I am living.

Then we went to Lihou and the lack of WIFI and the simple living resonated all over again. I was also astounded at the amount of waste we accumulated in such a short period of time. Our trip to Jersey was really the turning point though, or at least it got my attention to actually make some changes.

Here, the hostel had a strict recycling policy, and I was astounded to find that there was no facility for recycling plastics. From what I could gather plastic (other than plastic bottles, these could be recycled) would be sent off island to China, passing the problem elsewhere, or at least this was the story I was told. I noticed how much plastic packaging I was popping in the general waste bin and it alarmed me. It didn’t help that we were on holiday and thus our plastic wastage was more than it would be ordinarily.

I had already been having conversations with a friend who lives as lightly as possible here on Guernsey. It helps that he lives alone, but I am in awe of his lack of wastage, re-using where he can and avoiding buying food products that are packaged in plastic. He doesn’t have WIFI which is a dream for me, I would love to live without WIFI and a TV, let alone the morning sound of iPads, but life has become what it has become and I am not the only person living in this household, so if nothing else it enables me to practice tolerance, ha ha!

Then we had a friend come visit us from France, where he lives with his family on 50 acres of farmland where they farm sheep. He was telling me how they virtually live from their veggie patch and own eggs during the summer months, with their own frozen lamb and turkeys when required. I felt quite uncomfortable preparing lunch for him that first day, emptying plastic packaged after plastic packaged products from M&S, my shop of choice simply because it is close to where we live and I was short on time that day, the easiest option it therefore seemed.

But easy isn’t always a positive thing and I became very aware of my impact on the planet with all the plastic crap from the seemingly endless trays of soft fruits I buy each week for the boys. It started all sorts of conversations with all sorts of people about seasonal eating and how our children are so used to getting the same fruit all year around so that it isn’t a novelty or a treat anymore to eat strawberries, for example, as it was in my day - how old I feel, ha ha!

Then I had a chance encounter with a fellow healer and ex-Guern in the sea at Saints who was visiting the island. She now lives off grid in Brittany and we had a good chat about healing, her simple way of living and the demise of the sacred encountering with this planet. I left inspired and knowing that I really had to do something, make changes. .

I also finally got around to watching a documentary filmed by the States of Guernsey about what happens to our household waste here on Guernsey, which was part of Elijah’s home learning. It was interesting. Not least because it confirmed my concerns about pet food wrappings, that the pouches cannot be recycled. We make a point of buying tins for Bazza but I know that most of the food is only available in pouches (a mix of plastic and foil) and therefore in general waste, and while this is processed to produce RDF (refuge derived fuel) it’s still not ideal.

Did you know that the States collects approximately 350 tonnes of black bag waste each month? That’s the equivalent of the weight of almost two blue whales! Quite astounding that we produce so much waste. What is even more astounding, or not when one considers our inherent laziness, is the fact that people put stuff in the recycling bags that can’t be recycled, such as pet food pouches and Hello Fresh products (it might be fresh, but it has a carbon footprint) which means that someone or something has to sift through and separate, adding to work loads and processing. If only we could all pay a little bit more attention!

With a new month looming I thought I might put it to best use by making changes. As you know one of my mantras is “be the change you want to see in the world” and I do have a sense that if we all lived a bit more respectfully and lightly, and indeed consciously (how I wish everyone was Reiki attuned too, for example, to bring more love and harmony to self, which would then be reflected back in the world), we might create a world like the one the ancients lived in, where they built megalithic temples to honour and harness the earth’s energy, where they lived with deep respect for nature and this wonderful planet we live on.

But alas, still we have these influential individuals running the show; Elon Musk continues to send satellites into space, Marc Zuckenberg, quoted as saying “You can be unethical and still be legal; that’s the way I live my life.”, continues feeding misinformation and political bias on social media, controlling what people see on Facebook and how they may therefore see life, and don’t even get me started on Bill Gates. Yes, sadly our world is influenced by some big influencers who all have a whole heap of money and who say they’re trying to help the planet, but I don’t see that playing out in reality.

But really, it doesn’t matter about them, it matters about us, and doing what we can do, individually, to make the changes that we’d like to see in the world! I’m a fan of enquiries. I did an enquiry once into a life of sobriety which, well, led to sobriety, I did an enquiry into life without social media, which led to a life without social media in it, I did an enquiry into life without a smart phone and this has thus far led to a life without a smart phone (I’ll be honest though, the Nokia is a pain in the arse, easier just not to have a phone, please don’t text me on it if you expect more than a one word answer!).

So this enquiry is about living more lightly, buying from hedges as much as I can, avoiding buying anything in plastic packaging and reducing all waste. I already make my own deodorant, perfume and bath oils, while a friend kindly makes me face cream, so i just need to expand now to hair products. I am hopeful all of this will positively affect my bank balance too, but let’s see, I don’t expect it to be as easy as I might want it to be and I have a busy month coming up…I’ll let you now how it goes.

In the interim, take a look outside, one late, dark and clear night and notice the number of satellites in the sky. It’s really quite scary what we’re doing, and we don’t even know about about or have a choice in it…so I guess a reminder to make the choices we can make to help support nature and this beautiful planet we live on.

Love Emma x