The Climate Hoffs

This could be one of the most important things I’ve watched in awhile. I’m taking an online permaculture course right now and learning about soils and what is happening out there is eye opening. How do we stop this?

Food. It’s pretty important and usually tastes great. The more I learn about food and where it comes from the more disappointed I am in our food system. Our grocery stores a filled with food from around the world. In a way this is fantastic, try new foods and flavours from anywhere you choose but we have so many great flavours and food grown right here. Eating locally has be something I’m striving to do more of everyday. I just canned B.C. pears last night because I can’t in... good conscience buy pears from New Zealand and Argentina anymore. BC peaches are next. We don’t eat a lot of meat but we try really hard to buy local organic meat. It’s better I promise. I’ve also started reading labels before I buy anything. It is crazy how many products have palm oil in it (please stop buying anything made with it). I bake a lot of bread but if I can’t or don’t want to I buy from a local bakery. We have so many great local shops we can support. In order to get to a more sustainable life we all need to start eating locally as often as possible, and stop wasting but that’s another topic. Do you read labels? If so let me know what you find that shocks you in a good or bad way.

The Avengers had worse odds than we do, just sayin'. Which of the many solutions we can push forward right now gets you really excited? .. we can make Drawdown (AND a society focused on moral over prudential values, equitable support, meaningful work, degrowth, what else (ADD YOUR COMMENTS!)) happen by 2040. What is lacking is political will. We know the solutions. They are economically feasible. (Though frankly, I still don't understand how society values economy over life..., but there I am with my pink glasses on.) See a sweet (and, sure, incomplete) version of this in the FILM 2040 - on vimeo or your favourite movie streaming rental (Google Play, Apple ..) https://imgflip.com/i/49ut8u

Milk, I don’t know whom else out there struggles with decisions on what milk to buy but I do. Mass production of animal milk is a very problematic industry. I try not to support it but I’m not perfect, I enjoy ice cream, yogurt and butter.... but I try hard to limit. What I try to do is make nut milk at home. It’s really not that hard but nuts are problematic at well. Almonds for instance are generally from California and are very water intensive to grow. Then the process to... make them into milk is also water intensive. Then what happens to the pulp? When I make it at home I use far less water then mass produced but the almonds travelled very far to get here and I can dry out the pulp and use it for baking. Today I learned that I can make almond milk from almond butter. No soaking nuts over night, no drying out the pulp. Throw a tablespoon a butter per cup of water and blend! So quick and easy. My first choice would be to find a local farmer that treats his animals with care and free range but I haven’t got there yet. It’s a process and that’s ok. Be kind and thoughtful. What is everyone out there doing for their milk needs?

Acceptance is work in progress for us as a family. Listening to The Mindful Path to Self-Compassion, I am reminded that clinging AND rejection are at the heart of suffering. What do you reject about yourself? What would it mean to accept it? Why does it feel too dangerous to let go, right now? We yearn to control - can we accept that we control very little, and doing it well takes practice - working with our minds, responding lovingly, kindly.... Can we accept that the physical reality of our world is changing? Can we relinquish our dreams of retirement, lovingly kiss them goodbye, grieve them - and then accept the path of envisioning, instead, the best society, the best community, the best environment with which we can and want to move forward in this precious life we have been gifted? Can we accept that it may be too late - being attached not to the outcome, but to the beauty of the process in which we can be engaged, building community, uplifting one another, supporting all forms of life with our whole being, to the best of our ability and awareness? Can we accept that we will get it wrong? Can we be kind and gentle with ourselves? Can we accept that we are imperfect, that we are doing our best with what we know, that we are good? Can we accept feedback, grow and learn? Can we accept that we live in a society that does not yet have the collective awareness, the collective willingness to do what is good for life, for community? That we cannot, individually, get it all right all at once? That systemic change takes building and rallying our communities, like we have done to collectively help one another through the current pandemic? Can we accept our messiness, our humanness, our nature? I believe we can do all this, turn a search for pleasure into a life of joy, embracing our mortality, our capacity to fall and get up again, and to come together and overcome. #BuildBackBetter #ClimateHoffs #Mindfulness #LetItGo #DeepAdaptation #WhatsYour2040