growing up green

I love overhearing my children's chatter. The little things they say to each other in their play and their daily stories. 

This morning, while at the park playing in the sand I heard my children talking about a shop-bought dress-up costume another child was wearing. My two little ones said that while it was pretty it was made in a factory, and not as nice as homemade. 

And this afternoon, the kids set up their play shop with some pretty little playdough cupcakes. What a sweet bakery they have. Some funky beats playing in the background too. The little customer (Mishi) told the shopkeeper (Ari) "I don't need a bag".

Oh, heart sing. 

I myself grew up in what would best be described as a hippie household. My parents never took plastic bags at the shop, we wore hand-me-down or market bought clothes, we dyed our hair with henna (bought in bulk at the healthfood shop), we were vegetarians and ate organic food, we even went to a Steiner school!

Saying no to plastic bags is innate for me, and it brings me great pleasure to know that my children, young as they are, are learning and knowing and practicing such actions. 

Despite all this, I do feel, of late - living in the city and the current situation of our modern lives - that I have strayed from these ideals with which I was raised. We can only buy milk in a plastic carton; whereas when we were children at one stage of our lives we got milk fresh from a farm. 

I look around my home and see so many more objects and things and stuff than I want to be living with. It is easy in our society to buy things as we want, rather than need. And while I am conscious of what I buy, I also know that I have a far way to go to being the non-consumer I was raised to be.

This is an ever-evolving process, something that I am working on in my mind and consciousness, and trying to bring out into our daily lives. It's a venture, a slow thoughtful way of moving and changing and thinking and being. Each day by day by day. 

The Slow Project, as I'm calling it, will be my way of documenting and watching my personal changes as well as those of my family, and our continued business practices. I hope you will join me on this journey, either simply watching and encouraging, or perhaps finding some moments of inspiration to make small changes within your daily routines.

**images used with deep thanks to Little House on a Small Planet. (An amazing must-read book that I will talk about at a later stage, but let me just say that I am enjoying it immensely and am learning so much from it.)