Small Bits of Change Make a Difference

The world often suffers from excessive amounts of inertia, inaction and cynicism. In 2012, this is inexcusable. People have had thousands of years to get their act together but they are still producing massive amounts of waste and garbage every year. They still cut down too many trees and kill too many animals. You can’t change everybody in the world, of course but it may be possible to change some.

Unfortunately, many people don’t understand how important it is to be active in improving the world around you. These people simply watch the world become worse and complain. They mock others who take an active step in improving the world and find their actions to be ridiculous. After all, how much difference can one person make?

Plenty! A person that wants to save water can save up to 30 gallons per day simply by repairing a dripping faucet. They can also save 100 gallons of water per day by fixing a leaking toilet and cutting 30 percent of its water use by installing a toilet tank dam. These simple steps take only moments to complete but help change the world for the better in an instant. (http://www.chnep.org/moreinfo/water_conservation_facts.htm)

And these aren’t the only ways a person can improve the world around them. Planting a single tree produces 48 pounds of extra oxygen a year. This oxygen is enough to support two human beings for an entire year. In fact, if all American families planted a tree, they could reduce the CO2 in the atmosphere astronomically. In fact, it would reduce it by a billion pounds. This would create a billion pounds of safe oxygen to breathe. (http://www.coloradotrees.org/benefits.htm)

Making healthier eating choices and improving your health can also help improve the world around you. Eating less meat or going vegetarian completely has major benefits for the environment. The amount of grain and grass it takes to create one pound of chicken, pork and beef averages out to about 5 or 6 pounds of grain per pound of animal. This is an entirely wasteful way of farming that is worse in America than overseas. (http://www.realfooduniversity.com/paleoprimal-lifestyle-sustainable-meat-production/)

The most important aspect of improving the world around you is to try to inspire others to join. Getting the lazy, the cynical and unimpressed active, passionate and impressed can help create impressive results. Activism may not inspire everybody but actively participating in improving the world around you, creating a better world and a better family environment may cause many others to join in on your quest.

Finding ways to encourage activism isn’t as hard as many people think. Simply get your word out there anyway you can. Write a letter to the editor to reach like-minded people who take the time to read the paper. Even if these people don’t agree with you, it may help open their mind to different possibilities.

A blog or personal website is another great way to reach a wide range of people. Internet searches and websites continue to be an important aspect of our culture and maximizing advocacy using these resources is crucial.

Basically, the only way to spread the fire of change is to be that change. Your motivation may inspire others to change themselves and the world around them in important and vital ways that you can’t even imagine.

This article was a contribution to promote green shopping and sustainable education.

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Part of growing up poor was wasting nothing and reusing everything, which is one of the most basic principles of going green. My new married life brought many changes, such as city living, and I lost many ingrained green living principles I had always held. Now, after several years, I have moved back to the country and once again have embraced living life while preserving the Earth.

Growing up on a farm, my grandmother collected the kitchen scraps in an old pan by the sink. At the end of the day one of us took it out to the garden and added it to a pile of debris towards the back. It is the most basic of composting ideas, but we have now started that process here in our own home. Why needlessly throw more in to the landfill when we can enrich the soil that will grow better vegetables for next year? Of course, we add other compostable material such as shredded newsprint to reduce our paper waste while growing our compost pile.

I am very proud of our rural community. Seven recycling centers have been set up throughout our county making recycling for those of us who live far from town very convenient. My three children and I sort our recyclable materials once every two weeks and haul them to the closest center. By doing this, we have reduced our actual waste from a 50-gallon garbage barrel to one 13-gallon garbage bag a week and that is for a family of five! Not only has it saved us money on a waste hauling service but also we can feel good that we are not contributing an enormous amount to a landfill.

Eating whole foods has been one of the greatest changes in our lives. Not only are we healthier, but we are producing less waste and contributing less to food corporations who produce food-like products. Processed food contains too many chemicals to name and although they are not all terrible, many are. I purchase most of our food in bulk, reducing packaging and trips to the store.

Household cleaners were another monumental change in our home. Traditional cleaners are toxic and many of us thoughtlessly used these cleaners for years. Many health stores and some major retailers sell non-toxic alternatives. I make many non-toxic cleaners from common ingredients found in our home. I have never worried about the children accidentally ingesting a poisonous cleaner because my cleaners are all safe for them and the environment.

I found frugal living to coincide nicely with green living. As we began to live more deliberately and began to trim our excess, we naturally cut things from our lives that were harmful to our environment and ourselves. Combining trips to town to save on gasoline, buying foods in bulk, recycling and even changing simple things such as using cloth napkins and rags in place of disposable have not only saved our household money but have also reduced our household’s effect on the environment.

There is so much more we can do to help the environment. Nevertheless, we can feel good that we have started to go green.

This article was a contribution to promote green shopping and sustainable education.

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Today it seems that everyone is online. People not only have their own blogs and social networking pages, but they also have active online businesses as well. This means that most people are computer literate and interested in communicating through digital media.

This trend in communication has dramatically changed how people interact with one another, even family members. Families that would ordinarily loose touch with each other are now making weekly or even daily contact with each other through such platforms as Facebook and MySpace. For people interested in passing on their culture, traditions and philosophies this is wonderful news.

Traditionally spiritual ethical wills have been written down on paper. They took the form of essay, letters and statements. Today, these formats are still viable, however, they are a bit outdated.

Digital ethical wills are a great option for families that want to create something that can be viewed by the entire family, regardless of where they are in the world. Families can create a main family website where individual family members can contribute their personal ethical wills, or individuals can create their own digital spiritual ethical will and send out invitations for family members to visit their site.

There are several ways that an online ethical will can be formatted. The first option is to create an ethical will blog. This blog can dedicated entries to specific themes and topics.

The second option is to create a freeform essay on the website. This essay can have links to family photographs and other documents.

The third option is to create a multimedia presentation that is uploaded to the website. For example, an audio file or a video file can be embedded in the website on the page with information that the person wants to pass on. This is a great option for preserving family stories and memories as well.

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The process of writing any type of will is usually thought of as a very serious and time consuming process that is never fun. However, when writing a spritiual ethical will there are sevearl ways you can make it enjoyable. Below are a few creative projects that you can have fun with as you write your ethical will.

The first project is to tell the story of your life in under five minutes. For this activity you will need either a video or audio recorder, five minute, a notepad, a writing instrument and any photos or keepsakes you want to include in your presentation. The preparation for this activity will be to create an outline of the most important parts of your life. This will help you tell your story. When you are ready you can record your lifestory on tape or digital media.

The next project is to write a chapter for your personal memoirs. The title of this chapter is, “The First Life Lesson I Learned.” For this chapter you will talk about an event in your life that really taught you about what is important in life or what path was right for your to take. This event needs to be early in your life.

You can continue on your path to writing your memories with a second chapter for your book entitled, “Mistakes I’ve Made.” This is going to be a hard chapter to write as it requires you to review the mistakes that you made. However, it does provide you with the chance to admit mistakes that you have made and to examine how those mistakes impacted your life. It also gives you the chance to repair relationships and to fix problems that those mistakes have caused.

Having fun with your spiritual ethical will may sound unusual, but it is an approach that can make the process of preparing for your passing easier to handle.

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Preparing for your death is not pleasant. It is difficult to think about leaving your loved ones behind to fend for themselves against the world. However, writing a spiritual ethical will is one way you overcome many of the problems that are commonly associated with managing an estate.

One of the biggest problems that can occur when your estate goes into probate is that your heirs will contest the will. Contesting occurs when one or more people feel that the will unfairly bequeaths assets to someone. You can help to avoid contesting problems with your estate by explaining things in an ethical will. The ethical will can outline your thought process and it can help to ease hurt feelings. For example, someone may have offered you extensive help during your life that your children may not be aware of. This may be the reason why you left them money or other assets.

If you leave assets to a charity then this too can lead to the contesting of your will by your children, spouse or other heirs. Again your spiritual ethical will can be a great tool to help explain why you left money to a charity instead of to someone that you are related to or that you had a relationship with. One of the purposes of an ethical will is to pass on your life philosophies and moral values. If you valued charity and giving then you can explain that these philosophies are important to you and that is why you left money to the organizations that you did.

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Writing a spiritual ethical will is one of the best things that you can do for your family and loved ones. If the process of writing an ethical will seems too daunting then consider the shorthand version called the ethical letter. As the name of this document suggests, an ethical letter is basically just a letter used to convey your best wishes and hopes to those people and organizations that you are leaving behind.

The first step in writing an ethical will letter is to determine who you want to address the letter to. It can be addressed to a single person or to a group of people.

The next step is to set up the format for your ethical will letter. The format is just like a regular letter with a greeting, a body and a closing.

Step three is to compose the body of your ethical letter. The body will contain specific information about your morals, values and philosophies. It will also address what you want your heirs to known about your or to know about life. If you are addressing several people, then you can dedicate one paragraph to each person or group of people.

The final step is to edit your letter. You will want to edit it for content and for general mistakes. It is a good idea to save your ethical will letter in versions. This will allow you to see how your philosophies change over time. It will also ensure that when you pass away that the most current version is give to your heirs.

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Divorce is a difficult time in your life. It tests your belief system and its tests your ability to recover from a traumatic event. However, it also puts your ability to live by high ethical standards as well.

When you are writing a spiritual ethical will and you are divorced, it can be a great testament to your character and moral beliefs to address your relationships with past spouses in a respectful manner. You can talk about what they added to your life and what you learned from your relationship with them. This approach is particularly important if you have children.

If you have dirty laundry to air with an ex-spouse then do not do it in your general spiritual ethical will. Instead draft a private ethical letter that will be addressed only to your ex-spouse. This will allow you to tell your ex-spouse what you need to tell them. This can be anything from an apology for the mistakes that you made in the relationship, or it can be a statement about how they hurt you or how their actions impacted your life and the life of your family. Writing this type of letter can be very therapeutic, even if the letter never gets to your ex-spouse.

Including your ex-spouse(s) in your ethical will is not a requirement. You always have the option to include what ever information you want, and you always have the option to exclude any information that you want. However, keep in mind that the example that you set with the content in your ethical will, will impact the lives of those that you leave behind.

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Your ethical will is like a catch-all document that you can use to deliver information to the people that you are leaving behind. This information can be about just about anything that you want to talk about. You can discuss your love for your family, regrets that you may have or you can even talk about what you hope will happen for those that you love.

While most ethical wills are not going to include surprising information, they can be. If you have been carrying around a secret or secrets with you for decades and want to get them off your chest, then this is the document to do it in. Most secrets are more hurtful to the person who is carrying them around so airing out your secrets in your ethical will can be really cathartic.

You have complete control over how you phrase things and how you address your issues in your ethical will. However, it is still a good idea to be tactful when revealing secrets that may be difficult for those you love to understand or deal with. Depending on the type of secret you want to reveal in your spiritual ethical will, you may want to reveal it to just a select few people. This can be done through the use of an ethical letter.

Writing an ethical letter is just like writing any other letter. You will address it to one or more people, you will include a body of information and you will include a closing.

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The ethical will is a document that is normally written by adults as a way to pass on their traditions, philosophies on life and their final wishes for the people that they will be leaving behind when they pass away. While this writing activity is normally done closer to the end of life, it can also be done earlier. Children, for example, can create their own ethical wills.

When children write their ethical wills they will most likely not be thinking about their deaths and who they will be leaving behind. This is okay, as ethical wills are also great tools for soul searching and for realizing what is important in your life. This is where they are a great project for kids, as they can be used to help kids understand what is important in their lives and what they treasure the most about the people that they love.

The first ethical will activity that kids can complete is called the “I am most thankful for…” project. This activity will have kids create a list of what they are most thankful for. In addition to listing the item, the person or the experience, they also need to explain why they are thankful for that item.

The next ethical will activity that is appropriate for kids is a memoir activity. In this activity kids will write about their life up to this point. For some kids the memoir will only cover 10 years, while others will cover 17. The goal of this exercise is to simply get kids to think about all of the lessons that they have learned so far and to identify the people and philosophies that have helped them the most.

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Most charitable contributions are given out during the last two months of the year. This is when holiday cheer seems to inspire charity. The charities that receive the most donations are those related to feeding families, providing toys to underprivileged children and to other religious charities.

Since your heart and mind are on charitable contributions this is the perfect time of year to write down what your charity traditions are. In this spiritual ethical will entry you can tell those that mean the most to you about the charities that mean the most to you. This section does not have to be long. A single paragraph will usually suffice.

When writing this section you will want to first detail what your charity traditions are. For example, you may donate a percentage of your annual income to a specific charity, or you may make it a habit to donate all of your change to charity collection buckets after each shopping trip. Make sure you identify how you determine how much you donate and how you determine which charities to donate to.

Next you will want to talk about your favorite charities. You can explain why certain charities hold a special place in your heart, and you can also explain why you avoid donating to certain charities. In addition to monetary donations you can also talk about donating your time. For example, you may want to talk about your tradition of volunteering to make cookies for local nursing homes, or volunteering to deliver meals to shut-ins.

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