...and with them come a chance to reaffirm your community with our earth. Advent is a season of waiting, expectations, and finally a sense of light and oneness. The Advent season is also the perfect time to put these positive feelings into practice in a number of ways, not the least of which is by connecting with loved ones, and who doesn't love this big old planet that we live on? We all love to give well intentioned, meaningful, appreciated gifts to those that we love; how cool it would be if this is the year that we didn't neglect putting Mother Earth at the tops of our gift giving list! (If we can feel so generously with our hairdressers and mail persons, then shouldn't we also spread some eco-love?)
According to the Georgia Interfaith Power and Light people (Sound familiar? This is a southern chapter of our very own Hoosier Interfaith Power & Light chapter.), Americans "throw away 1 million extra tons of garbage each week" (emphasis my own) from Thanksgiving to the new year. That's about 6 weeks, right? Let's figure this out, then: we're talking about an extra (as in on top of the MASSIVE quantities that we are already throwing away every day) 6 million TONS of garbage just because we're all feeling particularly celebratory and spirited. That's not a very merry Christmas for our world.
Here's a place to start: Thanksgiving. It's coming up (really!) quickly. Free-range turkeys might be beyond your budget or capabilities at this point, but don't forget the rest of the spread. Organic veggies. Local baked goods (did you know that the winter farmer's market is open again in the YMCA from 9-12 every Saturday right now??). Decorations from your own backyard (or your neighbor's if they're better at general landscaping than you are...). The focus always seems to be on the turkey, but anyone who has prepared an entire, traditional Thanksgiving meal for a group of people will undoubtedly affirm that the turkey can be just about the easiest part of the process.
Some of us who travel to the homes of our family members have little say so in whether our dinner comes to us on paper, plastic or china, but if you are the host, why not bring out those special plates, even cloth napkins? Guests will help, gladly even! No one wants to be the guest who doesn't pitch in while their host slaves away over everything. It might seem like using real dishes is a big waste of time, but the time that it takes to wash a few is nothing short of a blip on the radar of the amount of time it takes a plastic (or even worse...styrofoam) plate to break down in a landfill.
Black Friday is rampantly out of control by many peoples' standards. If you share this philosophy, perhaps this would be a great year to start a new tradition: Bright Friday...choose an activity that continues the focus of giving thanks, such as whipping up a delish something or other using Thanksgiving leftovers and then taking it to some local firefighters, rather than gratuitous getting (which, arguably, has little thanks involved).
And, finally, we would all certainly be remiss if amidst the general busyness of Thanksgiving day, if we didn't take a moment to pause and reflect on the incredible, truly awe-some blessings that God has blessed each of us with every day. If you're into some family time reflection around a groaning dinner table, then perhaps From the Beauty of the Earth by Steven Bouma-Prediger would be something that you would be interested in checking out. Hey, why not...your dinner might be a degree or two cooler, but it will undoubtedly taste infinitely better with an appetizer of gratitude to whet the palate.
