We had some miraculous rain on Halloween here in Los Angeles.  About an inch when the last we've had was one tenth of an inch April 1.  Considering the Biblical/DEFCON4 drought in these parts, it was glorious!

The next day I was playing flag football and got mud under my fingernails and had a moment.  The kind of moment gardeners must have all the time...how wonderful that feeling of earth is.  

It's all about the frame isn't it?  Dirt on a chair/bench when I'm dressed up purty is very UNwelcome.  But digging my toes into the sand or the feel of soil when you're playing on a field or in a garden is kind of magical.  Do you ever have those moments?  How do they make you feel?

We desperately need to change the conversation on conservation.  Climate change is somehow a very contentious political issue (n.b. in the U.S. only, a study across 39 nations found it ranked as the #1 global threat...but I digress).  The environmentalist in me finds the whole thing bananas....it's akin to having a national debate over whether smoking causes cancer.  The American Academy for the Advancement of Science has a campaign on the facts of climate change because our "national debate" is a bad sign for science at large.  And that doesn't even account for the fact that the climate change denial machine is not just using the same tactics - but the exact same people - that spent time a few decades back trying to confuse people about whether cigarettes caused cancer.  Like I said, bananas.

It's easy to find despair.  The poster child is a Republican Congressman from South Carolina who lost his 2010 primary battle because of backlash for his stance on climate change both existing and being man-made.  He was on the House Subcommittee for Energy and Environment that got "Burn Noticed" for its lack of common sense on science basics. 

But Enviro(ish) is extremely anti-despair.  I'm a believer in MLK Jr's quote that the arc of the moral universe is long, but bends towards justice.  And the first step we take is acknowledging the truth.  It's been a few years, so I checked up on that Congressman Bob Inglis, and checked in with an energy initiative in Washington D.C. led by four-star generals.  Seeing conservatives not just having discussions but taking policy action regarding climate change gives me incredible amounts of hope.  Here's the EcoPartyDownload on conservative solutions for climate change.  Yes, you read that right.....conserve IS the root for both conservation AND conservative....is it not?  (See what I did there?? Boom!)

Love this quote....helps me stay focused on what I can do, on my actions.  Stop letting the scope of the eco prevent me from taking a step in the right direction. Epitome of enviro(ish), don't you think?

What inspires you to get started and keep going?

There's this new trend in education and psychology - fixed vs. growth mindset.  Have you heard of it?  It's fabulous.  It shows that our mindset is one of the most powerful forces in whether we achieve greatness or hold ourselves back.

The research says that students with a fixed mindset believe that their basic abilities, intelligence, and talents are fixed traits.  Students with a growth mindset believe that those abilities, intelligence and talents can be developed with dedication and hard work.  In study after study, the professor leading this movement has shown that students with a growth mindset outperform those with a fixed mindset....especially because when difficulty comes along (and it always does), students with a fixed mindset give up because they think it means their intelligence/talents/etc just aren't enough.  Students with a growth mindset value the process...and so one more challenge does not throw them.

Why does this matter for the planet?

Start celebrating that you are trying to make a difference for the planet.  Start right now, with my whole-hearted congratulations.

Thanks for being someone other than my Mom (hi Mom!) to stop by this blog.  Instead of repeating what Enviro(ish) is about (see Meet Megan), I'd like to talk about one of the inspirations that led me here.   

A while back, there was an ad for a new line of natural products at a major grocery chain, and it went something like this: parents wake up to a cow in their bedroom and they milk the cow first thing in the morning, Dad is seen harvesting wheat with a sickle in the backyard....cue voiceover on how trying to eat more natural, whole foods doesn't have to mean we always DIY all the way.  Being more eco and healthy doesn't have to be this hard.

I LOVE this message because otherwise we all just throw up our hands at how hard and "unattainable" it is to be eco/natural/healthy/etc.  Environmentalists have spent decades pushing for bigger, drastic change...pushing so hard that we all feel left behind seeing only occasional PSAs with polar bears on a tiny ice floe.