I am frequently overwhelmed when I think about my carbon footprint, our carbon footprint, the carbon footprint of our home, myself, Perrie, our animals. Every action I take causes a reaction, every action taken by Perrie and those taken on her behalf cause a reaction. There our consequences to our actions; consequences that I have ignored for far too long.

Yes, we recycle. Yes, we utilize the wonderful website freecycle.org, sharing our unused items and finding items we need (such as a composter and reelmower). Yes, we try to buy organic. Yes, we weakly attempt to buy items locally. Yes, I kept the same cell-phone for five years, resisting the temptation to upgrade until my phone finally went to its recycled grave. Yes, we take in grocery sacks to prevent bringing home more plastic bags. Yes, my bookbag is made of recycled plastic bottles . . . Yet these are merely weak attempts to help us feel better about our consumption, and its consequence.

What we need to do is address each consequence individually. By examining each consequence, and then working back to its origination, we can identify the source of each consequence and work towards eliminating it all together.

For example: the consequence of using furniture polish is an empty aerosole can that ends up in a landfill. The prevention: five lemons and olive oil, in a reusable spray bottle, which now serves as your household furniture polish and a simple salad dressing. Lemon peel composted, landfill avoided!

So this is my new years resolution - one by one I am listing a consequence to an action. As each action is identified I am going to retrace its steps backwards and discover a way to eliminate each consequence, one by one. I am realistic. I would like to say, "tomorrow I am going to go completely green" or "I am going to recycle everything from this point forward", these statements intimidate me, I feel helpless at the thought of trying to change everything all at once. So I am going to change one thing at a time, a gradual lifestyle change of learning to make new choices, better choices. Slowly changing our old ways of thinking. I hope to use my blog to track my progress.