What You Can Do.

1. Have patience
Remember when we were taught that patience is a virtue? Convenience can be a crutch to justify less-than-thoughtful, need-displacing, impulse shopping. The next time you go to buy something, stop and think about what it will bring to you and your community as a whole. Ask yourself: Can I get this used? Can I barter for it? Where was it made? Was it made by someone treated with the dignity they deserve? Patience and mind-full living will greatly enrich your life and reduce chaotic clutter.

2. Hang your clothes out to dry
The clothing-dryer is the 2nd-most energy consumptive household appliance after the refrigerator and arguably the most frivolous (after the vibrating belt exercise machine). Even if you don’t have space for an outdoor clothesline there are indoor racks that are compact and work like a charm.

3. Love your neighbor
Not just the Jones’ down the street but also the flowers, the foxes, the birds, the mountains, and the rivers. All things are inexplicably connected, and if we can begin to treat our wider neighbors with the respect that we strive to treat other humans, the results will be beautiful. Live with an astute awareness of your actions and their affects on the whole.

4. Put on a sweater
When the temperatures drop, rather than throwing another log on the fire (or coal in the power plant) throw on a sweater, put on some soft booties, and sip a steamy hot drink. It’ll make you feel all warm and fuzzy.

5. Bike, walk, bus, or just stay home and relax
Try to wean yourself from America’s addiction to the automobile. Set goals, like “this year I will only drive my car once a week.” It’s fun! And there are lots of people doing it. Join them at Team Wonderbike

6. Support local agriculture
Shop at the Farmers Market, join a C.S.A (Community Supported Agriculture) Farm, or grow a garden. Eating is a divine act—who created your meal?

7. Drink tap water
Shipping bottled water around the world in plastic bottles burns a heap of fuel, pollutes our air, and puts more plastic into an increasingly plastic-sheathed world. Fort Collins has some of the best tap water in the world, but if tap water is not up to your standards, there are very high quality filters available at much more affordable prices than the cost of purchasing bottled water.

8. Use your own shopping bag
Next time you’re asked, “Paper or plastic?” say, “Neither, I have my own bags.”

9. Unplug
Turn off your computer when you are not using it. Unplug your chargers. Most cell-phone chargers continue to draw electricity even when the phone isn’t plugged into it. If your cell-phone charger averages five watts per hour and is plugged in all the time, that means a total of more than 40 kilowatt-hours every year, or about 93 pounds of CO2. The same problem applies to your other electronic equipment—your laptop, iPod, digital camera, television, and BlackBerry. Unplug everything when not in use.

10. Unplug, really…
Take regular hiatuses from the cyber world that has crept into nearly all aspects of modern American life. Schedule them if you must, but really unplug for a while. Leave your iPod at home, don’t bring your cell phone every time you leave the house, keep your computer off for the entire weekend, don’t get in your car, and refrain from using any power at all for even a ½ day. Your body, heart, and mind will thank you.