⊃ ∇ ⊙ Ask more questions. Waste less.
Who creates your reality?
We all know that the structure of human life varies enormously depending on its location, time in space and the ideas lent to it. Structure in human life has birthed a wealth of customs and traditions within our reality, but that doesn’t make them correct. Nor does it mean they can’t or shouldn’t evolve and change.
I explore wisdom,
I seek new understanding.
I remain open for it to find me.
🧜♀️
“Don’t let corporations cook for you.”
@michael.pollan
Some other damn-good-things Michael Pollan gone done said, “It’s true, we’re way too busy, and working longer and longer hours. But consider that, in the last decade or so, we’ve all found two hours a day to be online outside of work. So where did we get THAT time? The day is still only 24 hours long. The point is we always find time for things we value – and we’ve come to devalue cooking…that was a big mistake…”
“As long as we let corporations do most of our cooking for us, our agriculture will continue to be dominated by giant monocultures of grain and animal factories. Big companies only know how to buy from big farms. That means the movement to build a more diversified and local agriculture can develop only so far…”
Take back this power now. Start by shopping locally for ingredients (with less packaging, favour loose bulk, organic & fair trade as much as possible) that you then make into your favourite meals and snacks for yourself. Why? It feels good to learn new things, challenge yourself. Plus it’s the satisfaction of caring for yourself and your planet. Why would you trust anyone else with something as important?
What a catch!
The oceans form vast and diverse ecosystems that all play a vital role in making the planet we live on hospitable.
Since man has developed and evolved, we have treated the oceans like our personal pantry, battlefield and garbage bin without any reverence for its importance in our lives outside of our summer holidays and highly processed dinners.
Although once believed to be a limitless source of sustenance and money-making possibility, our reality shows us that all seafaring wildlife (and farmed seafood) currently surveyed has been infested by mankind’s pollution in some way or another. Yet we are still willingly ruining a damn good source of protection for ourselves
Birds, turtles and other sea creatures are being found either dead due to ingested plastic and chemicals, or their species are directly on rapid decline due to other human-induced environmental stressors.
The smaller fish, and even some bigger ones, who are yet to meet their demise through manmade environmental pollution, have to battle against aggressive industrial fishing techniques that are obliterating the equilibrium of our valuable marine ecosystem even further.
Active fishing gear is obviously a death trap, and the entire fishing industry is inherently wasteful in their exploitation of this vital resource – which actually doesn’t belong to them in the first place. These are issues in themselves, but did you know that one of the most ridiculous parts of it all is the #ghostfishing .
Ghost fishing is what happens when fishing gear is lost, forgotten or carelessly discarded by individuals or industry. They are the tools once used by mankind to keep us fed, that continue killing endlessly to feed nobody.
No being is safe, all types of marine life from fish, turtles to dolphins, and even humans can get stuck in #ghostgear . Sadly, many of our animal friends don’t get away and they die needlessly.
Most fishing gear is made of some type of plastic, it is obviously made to last and withstand incredible force. After having served the fishing market and killing millions more out of service, it will likely break up into #microplastics. Whatever happens, it will find its way into our food chain eventually.
You can take a stand by learning more about the industries you support, ask more questions about their practices, become curious about how that food got on your plate and figure out whether the impact on our future generations is worth your participation after all.
When was the last time you noticed the rhythm of your breath?
When did you last check-in, a brief pause, to just be really aware of yourself in the situation you find yourself in?
When was the last time you didn’t waste the present moment with thoughts about later, tomorrow and further ahead still or yesterday, last week, even last year and before that?
Updated 14 July 2022 – Original post from 22 November 2019
Who’s in the driving seat?
Since birth, almost everything we have learned through media, marketing and industry has been to program us, to take from us, in energy and finance. Aren’t you truly tired of it all?
The current system is organised to provide us with an illusion of choice, an end goal of material possession and ego recognition that keeps the greedy wheels of our industrial, colonialist society turning on autopilot. What happened to us?
Updated 6 October 2022 – Original 19 November 2019
Memories of a place not yet destroyed by mankind 🌲
“I did not give to anyone the responsibility for my life. It is mine, I made it. And can do what I want to with it. Live it. Give it back, someday, without bitterness, to the wild and weedy dunes.”
Mary Oliver
“She is learning
@danica.gim
to see the beauty
in the waiting,
in the failing,
in the letting go.”
Updated 4 August 2022 – Original 13 November 2019
Do you eat American Express?
Plastic is everywhere, killing wildlife and polluting our beautiful places, but even if you couldn’t care less about any of that, did you know that we humans, yes even you, are actually ingesting about the equivalent of a credit card in microplastic EACH week? Mostly through water but also beer and seafood and all other manner of things you probably wouldn’t even imagine.
Although we can easily ignore the state of things from our positions of comfort and privilege, do we really want to be consuming this amount of hormone-disrupting, disease-causing chemicals every week until we die? What about our children? Our pets? Not really.
Updated and translated from French 17 July 2022 – Original post 11 November 2019
Named the ‘Singular almost-Island’ because of the vast swathes of water surrounding it, Sete has incubated great artists such as Paul Valery, George Brassens, Jean Vilar or Manitas de Plata.
Without forgetting the latest insult of the new generation of “stars” from Demain Nous Appartient – ironically titled ‘Tomorrow is Ours’ – a French soap opera that is increasingly popular with the youth and lobotomised masses still ignorantly hypnotised by their distraction devices and actively destroying their own tomorrow – *sips tisane*.
Aside from the context in which I was spending it, I was lucky to have passed many a sunny school holiday here. Learning to sail on the saltwater etang, appreciating la belle vie in harmony with nature, frolicking in the waves of the Mediterranean sea. Basically making fond childhood memories amongst a stunning backdrop, as kids did before all the screens took over.
Sète has always been a special place, I’m not aware of a single person that knows it and hasn’t fostered a deep love for it. Attractive for the year-round sunshine with a unique and colourful mish-mash of cultures coming together in a quirky symphony under the Mont Saint-Clair.
Understandably then that it’s an increasingly sought-after destination, nicknamed ‘The Venice of Languedoc’ because of the canals that run through the town and its particularly privileged situation on the Cap of the Golfe du Lion. Surrounded by vast stretches of fine, sandy beaches and with many renowned cultural events taking place throughout the year that draw even more great artists and their devoted followers.
Today I’m not here to sell you a desire to visit but to show you another side to the quaint picture-perfect postcard images. A reality that is actually present in most places for those willing to look.
Continue reading “Ici Sete”
Making changes 🐛.
You might not want to.
It might seem like a huge effort.
Daunting, anxiety-provoking, long and pointless.
The path of change is seldom explored.
Continue reading “Making Changes”
Focus on what you can change. 💙
It can be difficult to see outside of ourselves and our little world.
We become so focused on the limitations we are personally experiencing.
We cannot, or might not want to, feel and see the pain others are experiencing.
Yet when we actively do something kind for someone else or something good for the environment (and expect nothing in return). The negative thoughts we have on the current state of affairs leave space for positivity, inspiration and love.
It’s too easy to worry, stress or get angry about things that are actually out of our control, but it won’t achieve much unless we can successfully convert these emotions into action.
A skill many of us need to hone, otherwise, we feel overwhelmed. This pushes us into a state of self-imposed ignorance and inaction in a bid to cope with the uncomfortable truths our existence stirs up.
Instead, we can try focusing our energy on identifying the things that are within our control and taking little but conscious steps to improve them. Remember this quote by Lao Tzu, “knowing ignorance is strength; ignoring knowledge is sickness.”
You can heal yourself. 💙
Text inspired by a piece on @dailymudras