If you've been by the shop lately, you might have noticed some flowers and butterflies floating in the window. Inspired by the spring equinox on March 20, our March display features earthy, grounded products in celebration of the renewed life, light, and energy that comes with springtime.
In this season of expectant renewal, I'm happily awaiting long walks through Madison's many parks. However, I've also been thinking about how to find the same joyful expectation for Earth's future in years to come. Beyond our Willy St. walls, powerful forces in the world have ominous implications for the natural world, making it difficult to imagine fully flourishing ecosystems in the years and decades ahead.
It's easy to hope for beautiful Madisonian spring and summer days this year, but there's the lingering dread of potential wildfire smoke, unseasonable heat waves, or toxic algal blooms in our beautiful lakes. In general, it's hard to find hope for a world that moves beyond plastic, climate change, or pollution.
With this reality, I think we need to be imaginative, get to work on solutions, and acknowledge that hope doesn't need to be the driving force of our action.
What would a world without plastic, landfills, or pollution look like? What would it take to make that world a reality? And in the ensuing work, how do we live better lives than the ones left behind?
Be Imaginative
It's hard to hope for something when you don't even know what you're hoping for. The first step to overcoming anxiety about environmental problems is to envision a realistic future where they don't exist.
At Green Life, we try to create a space where a greener future isn't something you have to imagine–it's already here. Specifically taking on unnecessary waste and single-use plastic, refill stores offer one vision for what a more sustainable world could look like.
There are many more visions out there—I find inspiration from the Looking Forward newsletter from Grist, which covers diverse solutions—everything from insect cuisine to greener playgrounds to clothing lending libraries.
What does the world that you'd like to live in look like?
Get to Work
If you look around and don't see enough people working to create what you've envisioned, look to yourself.
People, collectively and individually, have power. One of the biggest unknown variables affecting projections about the world's future climate is what humans will do. Small actions, like reducing food waste or composting, avoiding fast fashion, and walking or biking more have large impacts when taken as a collective.
We try to encourage these actions at Green Life—you get 10% off on compost days if you participate in our program with GreenBox, 10% off when you come to pick up a mended knit, and 5% off when you bike to the shop. Plus, simple sustainable swaps like switching to dryer balls vs. dryer sheets, loose leaf tea infusers vs. disposable tea bags, or a razor designed to last a lifetime have outsized impacts.
But you don't have to limit your actions to these things. Thinking about what you're good at, what you enjoy doing, and what the world needs to come up with a unique action that only you can do is even better.
To do all these things, you don't need much hope that a better world will become a reality; just knowing that there's a chance is enough. Whether you are optimistic or pessimistic, the action is the same. And in that action, you can find joy.
Find the Joy
There is lots to look forward to in the act of pursuing dreams of a more sustainable future:
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Buying less means saving money and relying more on others for help, which creates a stronger community.
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Finding meaningful work makes it more worth doing, and you'll lead a more purposeful life.
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Imagination and creativity, often suppressed in the doldrums of adult life, are fun and necessary for making the future our communities need.
As spring settles in, we can take this opportunity to adopt new outlooks and habits that are more imaginative, ambitious, and joyful, as we strive to be the hope for a greener world.
In closing, I'll leave a call to action from one of my inspirers, Ayana Elizabeth Johnson:
"Keep showing up. Join something. Find your people. Bring your superpowers. Be a problem solver. Choose your battles. Nourish joy. Love nature" - Ayana Elizabeth Johnson in What if we get it right?
