The beginning of the new year is often the time to look forward and set a goal or vision of what you want to do this year. After seeing the last episode of Blue Planet I know that I want to cutdown the plastic use. Frome Town Council and Mendip District council have just agreed to stop using single use plastic such as plastic cutlery or take away cups with plastic lids. A great decision! I’d really like to stop the use of polystyrene trays for hot food as well. I seem to find these littering the street most days. Surely a recyclable cardboard tray would be enough. Polystyrene takes more than 500 years to decompose, similar to a plastic bag.
Of course the challenge is to keep up any resolution you’ve made and stay positive that your small action has an impact. Years ago I learned something about this from being part of a group that delivered a workshop on climate change… the messages were bleak but part of the day looked at how to keep hopeful or positive. In the workshop there was a story that helped me. It goes along these lines… there was a grandfather that was teaching his grandchildren about life. He said to them ‘there is a fight going on inside me it’s between two wolves one represents fear, anger, envy and regret. The other joy, hope, friendship and truth. After a while one of the grandchildren said, ‘Well… granddad, which wolf wins?’ And the grandfather simply replied ‘the one I feed’. I try to remind myself of things that I am grateful for as this then helps me to notice the positive rather than get weighed down by things that make me gloomy. In this way I feed the wolf I want to win!
