A walk around the block

Well, this post was going to be a double win, a triumphant missive of mum over global warming and non-sleeping littlest billy goat gruff(LBGG). Alas, sigh, there can only be one winner, and today it was the LBGG (no sleep, okay, okay and no global warming involved (two wins, then)). Not that I really wanted to walk around the block to get LBGG to sleep, I thought I'd take the easy way and just put him in the car. After an internal wrestle, and I think mainly because I was reading some stuff about climate change yesterday (Manna Gum and Green Electricity Watch) and thinking that if I really think other people are important like I say I do (love your neighbours and all that) I need to live it as well. Sigh. I didn't feel particularly virtuous or uplifted, more grumbly and grumpy, anyway, hooray for me, for one little walk around the block instead of drive in the car. (There were some nice moments actually, chatting to the 4 year old, waving and saying hello to a couple of neighbours... Win one for community too? Hmm)

Joy on the tram

"It's nice to see our friends on the tram, isn't it?", said my four year old. We had just disembarked from our tram trip home after a school drop off. We had just had a joyful encounter with a woman we see periodically and talk to, on the tram. She is always pleased to see us, so much so, and so undeserveredly that it makes me reflect upon friendship given so fully, and freely and how good that makes me feel. It makes my day as we chat about the kids, what they're doing, which day is kinder day, what she is doing, and where she's going. She's great to chat with. I love it. The tram, it's not just about combating global warming, it's a joy filled connection with community.

People are surprising

I was reminded tonight of the challenge of how we view people different to ourselves. My eldest chose, "Children just like me" by Anabel Kindersley and Barnabas Kindersley, as his bed time story. I love this book. It has wonderful photographs of children and the things/people in their lives. It reports information about different children, their families, food they eat, schools they go to, games they play in a non-judgemental, level playing field kind of way, no one way of living is presented as being better than another.

I have been thinking about ways to challenge my kids stereotypes about people different to ourselves. My eldest has been trying to make sense of the way in which people live and the way for him to do this is to think that the way we do it is good, and the way other people do it is due to some sort of deficit; "they don't know how to..." This is a trap for us too, it is easy to think that the way we live is full of positives and 'the way to do it', and that other people's way of living is not as good. All people have strengths and deficits, even us.

Many people do live very different lives to us: they might live in a one roomed house, they might be farmers, they might not always have enough to eat, they might make their own clothes, they might go to school for more (or less) of the day than we do, they might eat more junk food... The list could go on indefinitely. BUT people, whether they are rich or poor, formally educated or not, urban or rural dwellers, are resilient, creative, enterprising, clever, AMAZING. They might find a solution to a problem I certainly couldn't imagine, they might be very resourceful or audacious. People are surprising. I'm trying to talk about this to expand my kid's world when we talk about how other's live. It is important to see how we might learn from others no matter what they're like. "Children just like me", is a good book to share too, it helps us to see other kids as kids, to see that, although people are different, there are lots of things the same as well; they all like to play with their friends, family is important, all have favourite foods.

Children Just Like Me

"A unique photographic celebration of children around the world. Through colourful pictures and children's own words, readers learn about the dreams and beliefs, hopes and fears and day-to-day events in the lives of children across the globe. For young readers between the ages of 7 and 15"

A knot in my shoelace

I tied a knot in my shoelace, and then I tied a knot in my other shoelace. Not to remember anything special but because the shoelaces broke. I am good at this kind of dodgy repair and fashion faux pas, or is it dodgy fashion and a repair faux pas... I'll let you make your own decision about that one!

But it did make me think about the many people who might not be able to buy a new shoelace, or have other pairs of shoes and what that means for me. How might my actions make a difference here? I really truly want to live in a world where we care for our neighbours, both local and global. Where we recognise the impact of our decisions, both large and small, upon others. Where we, with God's help, can help bring life into the world and not take it away. Idealisitic perhaps but it truly motivates me.

So, my little shoelace repairs set me thinking about some of the other teeny things I do that try to mean we take care of this world by living a little more simply, by being a little bit thoughtful about the impact of my actions, by not just throwing something away and buying something new.

• I reuse little snap lock bags, washing them after use; I use them in lunch boxes and for snacks, etc.
  
• I buy barbecue shapes in a box, not little bags, and put servings of them in the little snap lock bags to go in as a lunch box treat. (Actually, my son asked me to buy the bag of them with their individual packages and I explained my decision to him how we reuse the bags again and again so that there is less rubbish going into land fill, so that there is less energy going in to making individual bags, how we want to care for the environment, (I might have said some other things too, can't remember at the moment), he was TOTALLY fine about the whole thing - I thought he would have been still requesting little packets like everyone else, but no, it was like he got it and wanted to be part of this little caring for the earth revolution. He now selects the boxes of barbecue shapes when he is shopping with me.)
  
• I darn my socks (lunatic fringe, I know), but I think, "do I really need new socks, or is the rest of the sock okay for a while longer?" (I may have taken this one too far on occasion)
• I keep one sided paper from everywhere for the kids to draw on, to use as scrap paper, as list paper, and so on!

Have you got anything to add to the list?